Devon Energy's(NYSE:DVN) Share Price Is Down 73% Over The Past Five Years.

NYSE:DVN) for five whole years – as the share price tanked 73%. We also note that the stock has performed poorly over the last year, with the share price down 49%. The falls have accelerated recently, with the share price down 13% in the last three months. We note that the company has reported results fairly recently; and the market is hardly delighted. You can check out the latest numbers in our company report.” data-reactid=”28″>Long term investing is the way to go, but that doesn’t mean you should hold every stock forever. We don’t wish catastrophic capital loss on anyone. Spare a thought for those who held Devon Energy Corporation (NYSE:DVN) for five whole years – as the share price tanked 73%. We also note that the stock has performed poorly over the last year, with the share price down 49%. The falls have accelerated recently, with the share price down 13% in the last three months. We note that the company has reported results fairly recently; and the market is hardly delighted. You can check out the latest numbers in our company report.

See our latest analysis for Devon Energy ” data-reactid=”29″> See our latest analysis for Devon Energy

Devon Energy wasn’t profitable in the last twelve months, it is unlikely we’ll see a strong correlation between its share price and its earnings per share (EPS). Arguably revenue is our next best option. Shareholders of unprofitable companies usually expect strong revenue growth. That’s because fast revenue growth can be easily extrapolated to forecast profits, often of considerable size.

In the last five years Devon Energy saw its revenue shrink by 15% per year. That puts it in an unattractive cohort, to put it mildly. So it’s not that strange that the share price dropped 12% per year in that period. This kind of price performance makes us very wary, especially when combined with falling revenue. Ironically, that behavior could create an opportunity for the contrarian investor – but only if there are good reasons to predict a brighter future.

The graphic below depicts how earnings and revenue have changed over time (unveil the exact values by clicking on the image).

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report showing consensus forecasts” data-reactid=”49″>We consider it positive that insiders have made significant purchases in the last year. Even so, future earnings will be far more important to whether current shareholders make money. So we recommend checking out this free report showing consensus forecasts

What About Dividends?

A Different Perspective

Devon Energy is showing 2 warning signs in our investment analysis , you should know about…” data-reactid=”53″>Devon Energy shareholders are down 47% for the year (even including dividends), but the market itself is up 23%. Even the share prices of good stocks drop sometimes, but we want to see improvements in the fundamental metrics of a business, before getting too interested. Unfortunately, last year’s performance may indicate unresolved challenges, given that it was worse than the annualised loss of 11% over the last half decade. We realise that Baron Rothschild has said investors should “buy when there is blood on the streets”, but we caution that investors should first be sure they are buying a high quality business. It’s always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Devon Energy better, we need to consider many other factors. Even so, be aware that Devon Energy is showing 2 warning signs in our investment analysis , you should know about…