It is a pleasure to report that the Dubber Corporation Limited (ASX:DUB) is up 42% in the last quarter. But the last three years have seen a terrible decline. To wit, the share price sky-dived 87% in that time. So we're relieved for long term holders to see a bit of uplift. Of course the real question is whether the business can sustain a turnaround. 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.

It's worthwhile assessing if the company's economics have been moving in lockstep with these underwhelming shareholder returns, or if there is some disparity between the two. So let's do just that.

View our latest analysis for Dubber

Because Dubber made a loss in the last twelve months, we think the market is probably more focussed on revenue and revenue growth, at least for now. When a company doesn't make profits, we'd generally expect to see good revenue growth. Some companies are willing to postpone profitability to grow revenue faster, but in that case one does expect good top-line growth.

In the last three years, Dubber saw its revenue grow by 25% per year, compound. That is faster than most pre-profit companies. So on the face of it we're really surprised to see the share price down 23% a year in the same time period. The share price makes us wonder if there is an issue with profitability. Sometimes fast revenue growth doesn't lead to profits. Unless the balance sheet is strong, the company might have to raise capital.

You can see below how earnings and revenue have changed over time (discover the exact values by clicking on the image).

It's good to see that there was some significant insider buying in the last three months. That's a positive. On the other hand, we think the revenue and earnings trends are much more meaningful measures of the business. This free interactive report on Dubber's earnings, revenue and cash flow is a great place to start, if you want to investigate the stock further.

A Different Perspective

Dubber shareholders gained a total return of 13% during the year. Unfortunately this falls short of the market return. On the bright side, that's still a gain, and it is certainly better than the yearly loss of about 12% endured over half a decade. So this might be a sign the business has turned its fortunes around. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Dubber better, we need to consider many other factors. Even so, be aware that Dubber is showing 3 warning signs in our investment analysis , and 1 of those makes us a bit uncomfortable...