If you love investing in stocks you're bound to buy some losers. But the last three years have been particularly tough on longer term Surgery Partners, Inc. (NASDAQ:SGRY) shareholders. Unfortunately, they have held through a 61% decline in the share price in that time. And the ride hasn't got any smoother in recent times over the last year, with the price 35% lower in that time. The falls have accelerated recently, with the share price down 34% in the last three months.

While the stock has risen 7.1% in the past week but long term shareholders are still in the red, let's see what the fundamentals can tell us.

Check out our latest analysis for Surgery Partners

Surgery Partners isn't currently profitable, so most analysts would look to revenue growth to get an idea of how fast the underlying business is growing. Generally speaking, companies without profits are expected to grow revenue every year, and at a good clip. As you can imagine, fast revenue growth, when maintained, often leads to fast profit growth.

Over three years, Surgery Partners grew revenue at 10% per year. That's a pretty good rate of top-line growth. So some shareholders would be frustrated with the compound loss of 17% per year. The market must have had really high expectations to be disappointed with this progress. So this is one stock that might be worth investigating further, or even adding to your watchlist.

You can see how earnings and revenue have changed over time in the image below (click on the chart to see the exact values).

Surgery Partners is well known by investors, and plenty of clever analysts have tried to predict the future profit levels. So we recommend checking out this free report showing consensus forecasts

A Different Perspective

Investors in Surgery Partners had a tough year, with a total loss of 35%, against a market gain of about 26%. 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. On the bright side, long term shareholders have made money, with a gain of 5% per year over half a decade. If the fundamental data continues to indicate long term sustainable growth, the current sell-off could be an opportunity worth considering. Most investors take the time to check the data on insider transactions. You can click here to see if insiders have been buying or selling.

For those who like to find winning investments this free list of undervalued 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 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.