United Oil & Gas (LON:UOG shareholders incur further losses as stock declines 13% this week, taking five-year losses to 51%

Statistically speaking, long term investing is a profitable endeavour. But that doesn't mean long term investors can avoid big losses. To wit, the United Oil & Gas Plc (LON:UOG) share price managed to fall 51% over five long years. That's an unpleasant experience for long term holders. And it's not just long term holders hurting, because the stock is down 40% in the last year. Furthermore, it's down 25% in about a quarter. That's not much fun for holders. This could be related to the recent financial results - you can catch up on the most recent data by reading our company report.

Since United Oil & Gas has shed US$1.6m from its value in the past 7 days, let's see if the longer term decline has been driven by the business' economics.

View our latest analysis for United Oil & Gas

While markets are a powerful pricing mechanism, share prices reflect investor sentiment, not just underlying business performance. One flawed but reasonable way to assess how sentiment around a company has changed is to compare the earnings per share (EPS) with the share price.

United Oil & Gas became profitable within the last five years. That would generally be considered a positive, so we are surprised to see the share price is down. Other metrics may better explain the share price move.

In contrast to the share price, revenue has actually increased by a year in the five year period. So it seems one might have to take closer look at the fundamentals to understand why the share price languishes. After all, there may be an opportunity.

The company's revenue and earnings (over time) are depicted in the image below (click to see the exact numbers).

earnings-and-revenue-growth

We consider it positive that insiders have made significant purchases in the last year. Having said that, most people consider earnings and revenue growth trends to be a more meaningful guide to the business. It might be well worthwhile taking a look at our free report on United Oil & Gas' earnings, revenue and cash flow.

A Different Perspective

We regret to report that United Oil & Gas shareholders are down 40% for the year. Unfortunately, that's worse than the broader market decline of 20%. Having said that, it's inevitable that some stocks will be oversold in a falling market. The key is to keep your eyes on the fundamental developments. Regrettably, last year's performance caps off a bad run, with the shareholders facing a total loss of 9% per year over five years. We realise that Baron Rothschild has said investors should "buy when there is blood on the streets", but we caution that investors should first be sure they are buying a high quality business. I find it very interesting to look at share price over the long term as a proxy for business performance. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too. Even so, be aware that United Oil & Gas is showing 1 warning sign in our investment analysis , you should know about...

United Oil & Gas is not the only stock that insiders are buying. For those who like to find winning investments this free list of growing companies with recent insider purchasing, could be just the ticket.

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

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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. 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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