QPM Energy Limited (ASX:QPM) shareholders might be concerned after seeing the share price drop 14% in the last month. But in stark contrast, the returns over the last half decade have impressed. It’s fair to say most would be happy with 233% the gain in that time. To some, the recent pullback wouldn’t be surprising after such a fast rise. Of course, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s cheap now. Unfortunately not all shareholders will have held it for five years, so spare a thought for those caught in the 66% decline over the last three years: that’s a long time to wait for profits.

Now it’s worth having a look at the company’s fundamentals too, because that will help us determine if the long term shareholder return has matched the performance of the underlying business.

Check out our latest analysis for QPM Energy

QPM Energy isn’t currently profitable, so most analysts would look to revenue growth to get an idea of how fast the underlying business is growing. 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.

For the last half decade, QPM Energy can boast revenue growth at a rate of 99% per year. Even measured against other revenue-focussed companies, that’s a good result. So it’s not entirely surprising that the share price reflected this performance by increasing at a rate of 27% per year, in that time. So it seems likely that buyers have paid attention to the strong revenue growth. To our minds that makes QPM Energy worth investigating – it may have its best days ahead.

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

Balance sheet strength is crucial. It might be well worthwhile taking a look at our free report on how its financial position has changed over time.

We’re pleased to report that QPM Energy shareholders have received a total shareholder return of 19% over one year. However, that falls short of the 27% TSR per annum it has made for shareholders, each year, over five years. The pessimistic view would be that be that the stock has its best days behind it, but on the other hand the price might simply be moderating while the business itself continues to execute. 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. Case in point: We’ve spotted 3 warning signs for QPM Energy you should be aware of.