The worst result, after buying shares in a company (assuming no leverage), would be if you lose all the money you put in. But when you pick a company that is really flourishing, you can make more than 100%. One great example is Bellevue Gold Limited (ASX:BGL) which saw its share price drive 184% higher over five years. In more good news, the share price has risen 25% in thirty days. This could be related to the recent financial results that were recently released - you could check the most recent data by reading our company report.

Since the stock has added AU$106m to its market cap in the past week alone, let's see if underlying performance has been driving long-term returns.

View our latest analysis for Bellevue Gold

Bellevue Gold wasn't profitable in the last twelve months, it is unlikely we'll see a strong correlation between its share price and its earnings per share (EPS). Arguably revenue is our next best option. Shareholders of unprofitable companies usually expect strong revenue growth. That's because fast revenue growth can be easily extrapolated to forecast profits, often of considerable size.

For the last half decade, Bellevue Gold can boast revenue growth at a rate of 105% per year. Even measured against other revenue-focussed companies, that's a good result. Meanwhile, its share price performance certainly reflects the strong growth, given the share price grew at 23% per year, compound, during the period. This suggests the market has well and truly recognized the progress the business has made. To our minds that makes Bellevue Gold worth investigating - it may have its best days ahead.

You can see how earnings and revenue have changed over time in the image below (click on the chart to see the exact values).

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. So we recommend checking out this free report showing consensus forecasts

A Different Perspective

It's good to see that Bellevue Gold has rewarded shareholders with a total shareholder return of 47% in the last twelve months. That's better than the annualised return of 23% over half a decade, implying that the company is doing better recently. Someone with an optimistic perspective could view the recent improvement in TSR as indicating that the business itself is getting better with time. 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. For instance, we've identified 2 warning signs for Bellevue Gold (1 shouldn't be ignored) that you should be aware of.