Active investing isn't easy, but for those that do it, the aim is to find the best companies to buy, and to profit handsomely. When you buy and hold the right company, the returns can make a huge difference to both you and your family. For example, Hallador Energy Company (NASDAQ:HNRG) has generated a beautiful 371% return in just a single year. And in the last month, the share price has gained 43%. In contrast, the longer term returns are negative, since the share price is 46% lower than it was three years ago.

After a strong gain in the past week, it's worth seeing if longer term returns have been driven by improving fundamentals.

See our latest analysis for Hallador Energy

Hallador Energy isn't currently profitable, so most analysts would look to revenue growth to get an idea of how fast the underlying business is growing. 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.

Hallador Energy actually shrunk its revenue over the last year, with a reduction of 16%. This is in stark contrast to the splendorous stock price, which has rocketed 371% since this time a year ago. There can be no doubt this kind of decoupling of revenue growth and share price growth is unusual to see in loss making companies. While this gain looks like speculative buying to us, sometimes speculation pays off.

The company's revenue and earnings (over time) are depicted in the image below (click to see the exact numbers).

This free interactive report on Hallador Energy'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 Hallador Energy has rewarded shareholders with a total shareholder return of 371% in the last twelve months. That certainly beats the loss of about 9% per year over the last half decade. This makes us a little wary, but the business might have turned around its fortunes. I find it very interesting to look at share price over the long term as a proxy for business performance. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too. Consider for instance, the ever-present spectre of investment risk. We've identified 3 warning signs with Hallador Energy (at least 2 which shouldn't be ignored) , and understanding them should be part of your investment process.

Of course Hallador Energy may not be the best stock to buy. So you may wish to see this free collection of growth stocks.

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

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.

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