In order to justify the effort of selecting individual stocks, it's worth striving to beat the returns from a market index fund. But every investor is virtually certain to have both over-performing and under-performing stocks. At this point some shareholders may be questioning their investment in UroGen Pharma Ltd. (NASDAQ:URGN), since the last five years saw the share price fall 42%. Furthermore, it's down 19% in about a quarter. That's not much fun for holders.

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.

View our latest analysis for UroGen Pharma

Given that UroGen Pharma 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. 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 half decade, UroGen Pharma saw its revenue increase by 50% per year. That's better than most loss-making companies. Shareholders are no doubt disappointed with the loss of 7%, each year, in that time. You could say that the market has been harsh, given the top line growth. If that's the case, now might be the smart time to take a close look at it.

You can see below how earnings and revenue have changed over time (discover the exact values by clicking on the image).

Take a more thorough look at UroGen Pharma's financial health with this free report on its balance sheet.

A Different Perspective

UroGen Pharma shareholders are up 7.1% for the year. But that was short of the market average. But at least that's still a gain! Over five years the TSR has been a reduction of 7% per year, over five years. It could well be that the business is stabilizing. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand UroGen Pharma better, we need to consider many other factors. Consider risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 1 warning sign for UroGen Pharma you should know about.

If you are like me, then you will not want to miss this free list of undervalued small caps that insiders are buying.

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.