The most you can lose on any stock (assuming you don't use leverage) is 100% of your money. But on a lighter note, a good company can see its share price rise well over 100%. One great example is Datadog, Inc. (NASDAQ:DDOG) which saw its share price drive 282% higher over five years. It's also good to see the share price up 17% over the last quarter. But this move may well have been assisted by the reasonably buoyant market (up 7.4% in 90 days).

So let's assess the underlying fundamentals over the last 5 years and see if they've moved in lock-step with shareholder returns.

Check out our latest analysis for Datadog

Given that Datadog only made minimal earnings in the last twelve months, we'll focus on revenue to gauge its business development. Generally speaking, we'd consider a stock like this alongside loss-making companies, simply because the quantum of the profit is so low. It would be hard to believe in a more profitable future without growing revenues.

For the last half decade, Datadog can boast revenue growth at a rate of 39% per year. That's well above most pre-profit companies. Meanwhile, its share price performance certainly reflects the strong growth, given the share price grew at 31% 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 Datadog worth investigating - it may have its best days ahead.

The graphic below depicts how earnings and revenue have changed over time (unveil the exact values by clicking on the image).

Datadog is a well known stock, with plenty of analyst coverage, suggesting some visibility into future growth. Given we have quite a good number of analyst forecasts, it might be well worth checking out this free chart depicting consensus estimates.

A Different Perspective

It's good to see that Datadog has rewarded shareholders with a total shareholder return of 53% in the last twelve months. That's better than the annualised return of 31% over half a decade, implying that the company is doing better recently. Given the share price momentum remains strong, it might be worth taking a closer look at the stock, lest you miss an opportunity. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Datadog better, we need to consider many other factors. For instance, we've identified 2 warning signs for Datadog that you should be aware of.

Of course Datadog may not be the best stock to buy. So you may wish to see this free collection of growth stocks.