Greenlight Capital Re (NASDAQ:GLRE) investors are sitting on a 69% loss if they had invested five years ago

Generally speaking, long-term investing is the way to go. But unfortunately, some businesses just don’t succeed. Namely, the Greenlight Capital Re, Ltd. (NASDAQ:GLRE) the stock price has managed to drop 69% over five long years. It’s not much fun for true believers.

So let’s take a look and see if the long-term performance of the business has been in line with the progress of the underlying business.

Check out our latest analysis for Greenlight Capital Re

It is undeniable that markets are sometimes efficient, but prices do not always reflect the underlying performance of companies. An imperfect but reasonable way to gauge changing sentiment around a company is to compare earnings per share (EPS) with the stock price.

In five years of share price growth, Greenlight Capital Re has gone from loss to profitability. This would generally be viewed as a positive, so we’re surprised to see the stock price down. Other metrics might give us a better idea of ​​how its value is changing over time.

Arguably, the revenue decline of 3.0% per year for half a decade suggests that the company cannot grow in the long term. This probably encouraged some shareholders to sell the stock.

You can see how earnings and income have changed over time below (find out the exact values ​​by clicking on the image).

We consider it positive that insiders have made significant purchases over the past year. Even so, future earnings will be far more important to whether current shareholders are making money. Before buying or selling a stock, we always recommend a careful review of historical growth trends, available here.

A different perspective

Greenlight Capital Re investors had a difficult year, with a total loss of 13%, against a market gain of around 5.6%. Even good stock prices sometimes drop, but we want to see improvements in a company’s fundamentals before we get too interested. Unfortunately, longer-term shareholders are suffering more, given the 11% loss distributed over the past five years. We would like clear information suggesting that the company will grow, before assuming that the share price will stabilize. If you want to research this stock further, the insider buying data is an obvious place to start. You can click here to see who bought shares – and the price they paid.

The story continues

Greenlight Capital Re isn’t the only stock insiders are buying. For those who like to find winning investments this free list of growing companies with recent insider buying, might be just the ticket.

Please note that the market returns quoted in this article reflect the average market-weighted returns of stocks currently trading on US exchanges.

Feedback on this article? Concerned about content? Get in touch with us directly. You can also email the editorial team (at) Simplywallst.com.

This Simply Wall St article is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It is not a recommendation to buy or sell stocks and does not take into account your objectives or financial situation. Our goal is to bring you targeted long-term analysis based on fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not take into account the latest announcements from price-sensitive companies or qualitative materials. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.