Yahoo Finance Alector's (NASDAQ:ALEC) Shareholders Are Down 32% On Their Shares
Investors can approximate the average market return by buying an index fund. When you buy individual stocks, you can make higher profits, but you also face the risk of under-performance. Unfortunately the Alector, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALEC) share price slid 32% over twelve months. That's disappointing when you consider the market returned 15%. Because Alector hasn't been listed for many years, the market is still learning about how the business performs. It's down 56% in about a quarter.
View our latest analysis for Alector
Alector isn't currently profitable, so most analysts would look to revenue growth to get an idea of how fast the underlying business is growing. Shareholders of unprofitable companies usually expect strong revenue growth. As you can imagine, fast revenue growth, when maintained, often leads to fast profit growth.
Alector's revenue didn't grow at all in the last year. In fact, it fell 32%. That's not what investors generally want to see. Shareholders have seen the share price drop 32% in that time. That seems pretty reasonable given the lack of both profits and revenue growth. We think most holders must believe revenue growth will improve, or else costs will decline.
The image below shows how earnings and revenue have tracked over time (if you click on the image you can see greater detail).
We consider it positive that insiders have made significant purchases in the last year. Even so, future earnings will be far more important to whether current shareholders make money. If you are thinking of buying or selling Alector stock, you should check out this free report showing analyst profit forecasts.
A Different Perspective
Given that the market gained 15% in the last year, Alector shareholders might be miffed that they lost 32%. While the aim is to do better than that, it's worth recalling that even great long-term investments sometimes underperform for a year or more. It's worth noting that the last three months did the real damage, with a 56% decline. This probably signals that the business has recently disappointed shareholders - it will take time to win them back. While it is well worth considering the different impacts that market conditions can have on the share price, there are other factors that are even more important. Even so, be aware that Alector is showing 3 warning signs in our investment analysis , you should know about...
If you like to buy stocks alongside management, then you might just love this free list of companies. (Hint: insiders have been buying them).
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.
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