Jadestone Energy plc (LON:JSE) shareholders should be happy to see the share price up 13% in the last month. But that isn't much consolation to those who have suffered through the declines of the last year. During that time the share price has sank like a stone, descending 51%. It's not that amazing to see a bounce after a drop like that. Arguably, the fall was overdone.

Now let's have a look at the company's fundamentals, and see if the long term shareholder return has matched the performance of the underlying business.

See our latest analysis for Jadestone Energy

Jadestone Energy 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.

In just one year Jadestone Energy saw its revenue fall by 34%. That looks pretty grim, at a glance. In the absence of profits, it's not unreasonable that the share price fell 51%. Fingers crossed this is the low ebb for the stock. We don't generally like to own companies with falling revenues and no profits, so we're pretty cautious of this one, at the moment.

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 like that insiders have been buying shares in the last twelve months. Having said that, most people consider earnings and revenue growth trends to be a more meaningful guide to the business. So it makes a lot of sense to check out what analysts think Jadestone Energy will earn in the future (free profit forecasts).

A Different Perspective

Jadestone Energy shareholders are down 51% for the year, but the market itself is up 0.9%. However, keep in mind that even the best stocks will sometimes underperform the market over a twelve month period. Longer term investors wouldn't be so upset, since they would have made 1.2%, each year, over five years. It could be that the recent sell-off is an opportunity, so it may be worth checking the fundamental data for signs of a long term growth trend. 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. Case in point: We've spotted 1 warning sign for Jadestone Energy you should be aware of.

Jadestone Energy 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.