It is a pleasure to report that the Delivery Hero SE (ETR:DHER) is up 103% in the last quarter. Meanwhile over the last three years the stock has dropped hard. Tragically, the share price declined 63% in that time. So the improvement may be a real relief to some. After all, could be that the fall was overdone.

So let's have a look and see if the longer term performance of the company has been in line with the underlying business' progress.

View our latest analysis for Delivery Hero

Given that Delivery Hero 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. Shareholders of unprofitable companies usually desire strong revenue growth. That's because fast revenue growth can be easily extrapolated to forecast profits, often of considerable size.

Over three years, Delivery Hero grew revenue at 28% per year. That is faster than most pre-profit companies. The share price has moved in quite the opposite direction, down 18% over that time, a bad result. It seems likely that the market is worried about the continual losses. But a share price drop of that magnitude could well signal that the market is overly negative on the stock.

The image below shows how earnings and revenue have tracked over time (if you click on the image you can see greater detail).

Delivery Hero is a well known stock, with plenty of analyst coverage, suggesting some visibility into future growth. You can see what analysts are predicting for Delivery Hero in this interactive graph of future profit estimates.

A Different Perspective

We're pleased to report that Delivery Hero shareholders have received a total shareholder return of 48% over one year. There's no doubt those recent returns are much better than the TSR loss of 1.3% per year over five years. The long term loss makes us cautious, but the short term TSR gain certainly hints at a brighter future. 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. Consider risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 1 warning sign for Delivery Hero you should know about.

We will like Delivery Hero better if we see some big insider buys. While we wait, check out this free list of undervalued stocks (mostly small caps) with considerable, recent, insider buying.

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on German exchanges.

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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.