Reflecting on HEXO's (TSE:HEXO) Share Price Returns Over The Last Year
The art and science of stock market investing requires a tolerance for losing money on some of the shares you buy. But it would be foolish to simply accept every extremely large loss as an inevitable part of the game. So we hope that those who held HEXO Corp. (TSE:HEXO) during the last year don't lose the lesson, in addition to the 83% hit to the value of their shares. While some investors are willing to stomach this sort of loss, they are usually professionals who spread their bets thinly. Notably, shareholders had a tough run over the longer term, too, with a drop of 31% in the last three years. And the share price decline continued over the last week, dropping some 7.9%.
We really feel for shareholders in this scenario. It's a good reminder of the importance of diversification, and it's worth keeping in mind there's more to life than money, anyway.
Check out our latest analysis for HEXO
Given that HEXO didn't make a profit in the last twelve months, we'll focus on revenue growth to form a quick view of its business development. When a company doesn't make profits, we'd generally expect to see good revenue growth. That's because it's hard to be confident a company will be sustainable if revenue growth is negligible, and it never makes a profit.
HEXO grew its revenue by 105% over the last year. That's a strong result which is better than most other loss making companies. So on the face of it we're really surprised to see the share price down 83% over twelve months. Something weird is definitely impacting the stock price; we'd venture the company has destroyed value somehow. We'd recommend taking a very close look at the stock (and any available forecasts), before considering a purchase, because the share price is not correlated with the revenue growth, that's for sure. Of course, investors do over-react when they are stressed out, so the sell-off could be unjustifiably severe.
The graphic below depicts how earnings and revenue have changed over time (unveil the exact values by clicking on the image).
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 HEXO stock, you should check out this free report showing analyst profit forecasts.
A Different Perspective
HEXO shareholders are down 83% for the year, but the broader market is up 1.3%. Of course the long term matters more than the short term, and even great stocks will sometimes have a poor year. Shareholders have lost 9.4% per year over the last three years, so the share price drop has become steeper, over the last year; a potential symptom of as yet unsolved challenges. Although Baron Rothschild famously said to "buy when there's blood in the streets, even if the blood is your own", he also focusses on high quality stocks with solid prospects. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand HEXO better, we need to consider many other factors. Take risks, for example - HEXO has 4 warning signs (and 1 which shouldn't be ignored) we think you should know about.
HEXO is not the only stock insiders are buying. So take a peek at this free list of growing companies with insider buying.
Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on CA 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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