Some stocks are best avoided. We don't wish catastrophic capital loss on anyone. Anyone who held Cryoport, Inc. (NASDAQ:CYRX) for five years would be nursing their metaphorical wounds since the share price dropped 84% in that time. While a drop like that is definitely a body blow, money isn't as important as health and happiness.

On a more encouraging note the company has added US$50m to its market cap in just the last 7 days, so let's see if we can determine what's driven the five-year loss for shareholders.

Cryoport isn't currently profitable, so most analysts would look to revenue growth to get an idea of how fast the underlying business is growing. When a company doesn't make profits, we'd generally hope to see good revenue growth. That's because it's hard to be confident a company will be sustainable if revenue growth is negligible, and it never makes a profit.

In the last half decade, Cryoport saw its revenue increase by 11% per year. That's a fairly respectable growth rate. So the stock price fall of 13% per year seems pretty steep. The truth is that the growth might be below expectations, and investors are probably worried about the continual losses.

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

This free interactive report on Cryoport's balance sheet strength is a great place to start, if you want to investigate the stock further.

A Different Perspective

It's nice to see that Cryoport shareholders have received a total shareholder return of 24% over the last year. Notably the five-year annualised TSR loss of 13% per year compares very unfavourably with the recent share price performance. The long term loss makes us cautious, but the short term TSR gain certainly hints at a brighter future. I find it very interesting to look at share price over the long term as a proxy for business performance. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too.

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of companies we expect will grow earnings.

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

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.