We're definitely into long term investing, but some companies are simply bad investments over any time frame. We really hate to see fellow investors lose their hard-earned money. For example, we sympathize with anyone who was caught holding Hummingbird Resources PLC (LON:HUM) during the five years that saw its share price drop a whopping 73%. And it's not just long term holders hurting, because the stock is down 23% in the last year. And the share price decline continued over the last week, dropping some 28%. This could be related to the recent financial results - you can catch up on the most recent data by reading our company report.

Given the past week has been tough on shareholders, let's investigate the fundamentals and see what we can learn.

View our latest analysis for Hummingbird Resources

Given that Hummingbird Resources 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 hope to see good revenue growth. Some companies are willing to postpone profitability to grow revenue faster, but in that case one would hope for good top-line growth to make up for the lack of earnings.

In the last five years Hummingbird Resources saw its revenue shrink by 0.2% per year. While far from catastrophic that is not good. The share price fall of 12% (per year, over five years) is a stern reminder that money-losing companies are expected to grow revenue. We're generally averse to companies with declining revenues, but we're not alone in that. Fear of becoming a 'bagholder' may be keeping people away from this stock.

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

If you are thinking of buying or selling Hummingbird Resources stock, you should check out this FREE detailed report on its balance sheet.

A Different Perspective

While the broader market gained around 13% in the last year, Hummingbird Resources shareholders lost 23%. However, keep in mind that even the best stocks will sometimes underperform the market over a twelve month period. Unfortunately, longer term shareholders are suffering worse, given the loss of 12% doled out over the last five years. We'd need to see some sustained improvements in the key metrics before we could muster much enthusiasm. While it is well worth considering the different impacts that market conditions can have on the share price, there are other factors that are even more important. Like risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 4 warning signs for Hummingbird Resources (of which 1 is a bit concerning!) you should know about.