Reflecting on Intevac's (NASDAQ:IVAC) Share Price Returns Over The Last Three Years

Intevac, Inc. (NASDAQ:IVAC) shareholders should be happy to see the share price up 12% in the last quarter. But that doesn't help the fact that the three year return is less impressive. In fact, the share price is down 36% in the last three years, falling well short of the market return.

View our latest analysis for Intevac

There is no denying that markets are sometimes efficient, but prices do not always reflect underlying business performance. One flawed but reasonable way to assess how sentiment around a company has changed is to compare the earnings per share (EPS) with the share price.

Intevac saw its EPS decline at a compound rate of 4.9% per year, over the last three years. This reduction in EPS is slower than the 14% annual reduction in the share price. So it seems the market was too confident about the business, in the past.

The image below shows how EPS has tracked over time (if you click on the image you can see greater detail).

Dive deeper into Intevac's key metrics by checking this interactive graph of Intevac's earnings, revenue and cash flow.

A Different Perspective

Intevac shareholders have received returns of 22% over twelve months, which isn't far from the general market return. Most would be happy with a gain, and it helps that the year's return is actually better than the average return over five years, which was 5.0%. Even if the share price growth slows down from here, there's a good chance that this is business worth watching in the long term. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Intevac better, we need to consider many other factors. Take risks, for example - Intevac has 1 warning sign we think you should be aware of.

Of course Intevac 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. 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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