International Business Settlement Holdings (HKG:147) shareholders are up 11% this past week, but still in the red over the last five years

It’s nice to see the International Business Settlement Holdings Limited (HKG:147) share price up 11% in a week. But spare a thought for the long term holders, who have held the stock as it bled value over the last five years. Five years have seen the share price descend precipitously, down a full 84%. The recent bounce might mean the long decline is over, but we are not confident. The real question is whether the business can leave its past behind and improve itself over the years ahead. We really hope anyone holding through that price crash has a diversified portfolio. Even when you lose money, you don’t have to lose the lesson.

On a more encouraging note the company has added HK$163m to its market cap in just the last 7 days, so let’s see if we can determine what’s driven the five-year loss for shareholders.

See our latest analysis for International Business Settlement Holdings

International Business Settlement Holdings isn’t currently profitable, so most analysts would look to revenue growth to get an idea of how fast the underlying business is growing. When a company doesn’t make profits, we’d generally expect to see good revenue growth. Some companies are willing to postpone profitability to grow revenue faster, but in that case one does expect good top-line growth.

Over half a decade International Business Settlement Holdings reduced its trailing twelve month revenue by 4.7% for each year. While far from catastrophic that is not good. If a business loses money, you want it to grow, so no surprises that the share price has dropped 13% each year in that time. We’re generally averse to companies with declining revenues, but we’re not alone in that. Fear of becoming a ‘bagholder’ may be keeping people away from this stock.

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

We’re pleased to report that the CEO is remunerated more modestly than most CEOs at similarly capitalized companies. It’s always worth keeping an eye on CEO pay, but a more important question is whether the company will grow earnings throughout the years. It might be well worthwhile taking a look at our free report on International Business Settlement Holdings’ earnings, revenue and cash flow.

A Different Perspective

Investors in International Business Settlement Holdings had a tough year, with a total loss of 38%, against a market gain of about 12%. 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 13% over the last half decade. Generally speaking long term share price weakness can be a bad sign, though contrarian investors might want to research the stock in hope of a turnaround. While it is well worth considering the different impacts that market conditions can have on the share price, there are other factors that are even more important. Take risks, for example – International Business Settlement Holdings has 1 warning sign we think you should be aware of.

We will like International Business Settlement Holdings better if we see some big insider buys. While we wait, check out this free list of growing companies with considerable, recent, insider buying.

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on HK exchanges.

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