We think that it's fair to say that the possibility of finding fantastic multi-year winners is what motivates many investors. You won't get it right every time, but when you do, the returns can be truly splendid. Take, for example, the Twilio Inc. (NYSE:TWLO) share price, which skyrocketed 988% over three years. On top of that, the share price is up 33% in about a quarter. But this could be related to the strong market, which is up 16% in the last three months.

It really delights us to see such great share price performance for investors.

View our latest analysis for Twilio

Twilio isn't currently profitable, so most analysts would look to revenue growth to get an idea of how fast the underlying business is growing. Generally speaking, companies without profits are expected to grow revenue every year, and at a good clip. That's because fast revenue growth can be easily extrapolated to forecast profits, often of considerable size.

Twilio's revenue trended up 48% each year over three years. That's much better than most loss-making companies. In light of this attractive revenue growth, it seems somewhat appropriate that the share price has been rocketing, boasting a gain of 122% per year, over the same period. It's always tempting to take profits after a share price gain like that, but high-growth companies like Twilio can sometimes sustain strong growth for many years. So we'd recommend you take a closer look at this one, or even put it on your watchlist.

The image below shows how earnings and revenue have tracked over time (if you click on the image you can see greater detail).

Twilio is well known by investors, and plenty of clever analysts have tried to predict the future profit levels. Given we have quite a good number of analyst forecasts, it might be well worth checking out this free chart depicting consensus estimates.

A Different Perspective

Pleasingly, Twilio's total shareholder return last year was 273%. That's better than the annualized TSR of 122% over the last three years. The improving returns to shareholders suggests the stock is becoming more popular with time. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Twilio better, we need to consider many other factors. Case in point: We've spotted 4 warning signs for Twilio you should be aware of.

But note: Twilio may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies with past earnings growth (and further growth forecast).

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on US exchanges.

This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.