Even the best investor on earth makes unsuccessful investments. But serious investors should think long and hard about avoiding extreme losses. It must have been painful to be a Aveanna Healthcare Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:AVAH) shareholder over the last year, since the stock price plummeted 82% in that time. While some investors are willing to stomach this sort of loss, they are usually professionals who spread their bets thinly. Because Aveanna Healthcare Holdings hasn't been listed for many years, the market is still learning about how the business performs. Shareholders have had an even rougher run lately, with the share price down 42% in the last 90 days. 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. While a drop like that is definitely a body blow, money isn't as important as health and happiness.

Given the past week has been tough on shareholders, let's investigate the fundamentals and see what we can learn.

Check out our latest analysis for Aveanna Healthcare Holdings

Because Aveanna Healthcare Holdings made a loss in the last twelve months, we think the market is probably more focussed on revenue and revenue growth, at least for now. When a company doesn't make profits, we'd generally expect to see good revenue growth. That's because fast revenue growth can be easily extrapolated to forecast profits, often of considerable size.

Aveanna Healthcare Holdings grew its revenue by 4.8% over the last year. That's not a very high growth rate considering it doesn't make profits. Nonetheless, it's fair to say the 82% share price implosion is unexpected.. We'd venture this growth was too low to give holders confidence that profitability is on the horizon. If and only if this company is still likely to succeed, just a little slower, this could be a good opportunity.

The image below shows how earnings and revenue have tracked over time (if you click on the image you can see greater detail).

We consider it positive that insiders have made significant purchases in the last year. Having said that, most people consider earnings and revenue growth trends to be a more meaningful guide to the business. So we recommend checking out this free report showing consensus forecasts

A Different Perspective

We doubt Aveanna Healthcare Holdings shareholders are happy with the loss of 82% over twelve months. That falls short of the market, which lost 18%. There's no doubt that's a disappointment, but the stock may well have fared better in a stronger market. With the stock down 42% over the last three months, the market doesn't seem to believe that the company has solved all its problems. Basically, most investors should be wary of buying into a poor-performing stock, unless the business itself has clearly improved. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Aveanna Healthcare Holdings better, we need to consider many other factors. To that end, you should be aware of the 2 warning signs we've spotted with Aveanna Healthcare Holdings .

Aveanna Healthcare Holdings is not the only stock that insiders are buying. For those who like to find winning investments this free list of growing companies with recent insider purchasing, could be just the ticket.

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