The worst result, after buying shares in a company (assuming no leverage), would be if you lose all the money you put in. But when you pick a company that is really flourishing, you can make more than 100%. For example, the Summit Midstream Corporation (NYSE:SMC) share price has soared 151% in the last three years. How nice for those who held the stock! It's also good to see the share price up 16% over the last quarter.

Let's take a look at the underlying fundamentals over the longer term, and see if they've been consistent with shareholders returns.

View our latest analysis for Summit Midstream

Given that Summit Midstream 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. 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.

Over the last three years Summit Midstream has grown its revenue at 6.3% annually. Considering the company is losing money, we think that rate of revenue growth is uninspiring. In comparison, the share price rise of 36% per year over the last three years is pretty impressive. Shareholders should be pretty happy with that, although interested investors might want to examine the financial data more closely to see if the gains are really justified. It may be that the market is pretty optimistic about Summit Midstream if you look to the bottom line.

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 Summit Midstream's balance sheet strength is a great place to start, if you want to investigate the stock further.

A Different Perspective

It's good to see that Summit Midstream has rewarded shareholders with a total shareholder return of 124% in the last twelve months. Since the one-year TSR is better than the five-year TSR (the latter coming in at 7% per year), it would seem that the stock's performance has improved in recent times. Someone with an optimistic perspective could view the recent improvement in TSR as indicating that the business itself is getting better with time. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Summit Midstream better, we need to consider many other factors. To that end, you should be aware of the 1 warning sign we've spotted with Summit Midstream .

If you would prefer to check out another company -- one with potentially superior financials -- then do not miss this free list of companies that have proven they can 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.

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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.