Venture Life Group plc (LON:VLG) shareholders should be happy to see the share price up 25% in the last quarter. But that is small recompense for the exasperating returns over three years. Indeed, the share price is down a tragic 62% in the last three years. Some might say the recent bounce is to be expected after such a bad drop. The rise has some hopeful, but turnarounds are often precarious.

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.

Check out our latest analysis for Venture Life Group

Because Venture Life Group 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. 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 the last three years, Venture Life Group saw its revenue grow by 21% per year, compound. That is faster than most pre-profit companies. In contrast, the share price is down 17% compound, over three years - disappointing by most standards. This could mean hype has come out of the stock because the losses are concerning investors. But a share price drop of that magnitude could well signal that the market is overly negative on the 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 Venture Life Group stock, you should check out this FREE detailed report on its balance sheet.

A Different Perspective

We regret to report that Venture Life Group shareholders are down 6.0% for the year. Unfortunately, that's worse than the broader market decline of 3.0%. However, it could simply be that the share price has been impacted by broader market jitters. It might be worth keeping an eye on the fundamentals, in case there's a good opportunity. Unfortunately, last year's performance may indicate unresolved challenges, given that it was worse than the annualised loss of 4% over the last half decade. We realise that Baron Rothschild has said investors should "buy when there is blood on the streets", but we caution that investors should first be sure they are buying a high quality business. 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. For instance, we've identified 1 warning sign for Venture Life Group that you should be aware of.