When you buy shares in a company, it's worth keeping in mind the possibility that it could fail, and you could lose your money. But when you pick a company that is really flourishing, you can make more than 100%. For example, the Intra-Cellular Therapies, Inc. (NASDAQ:ITCI) share price has soared 177% in the last half decade. Most would be very happy with that. On top of that, the share price is up 17% in about a quarter.

So let's investigate and see if the longer term performance of the company has been in line with the underlying business' progress.

Intra-Cellular Therapies wasn't profitable in the last twelve months, it is unlikely we'll see a strong correlation between its share price and its earnings per share (EPS). Arguably revenue is our next best option. Generally speaking, companies without profits are expected to grow revenue every year, and at a good clip. That's because fast revenue growth can be easily extrapolated to forecast profits, often of considerable size.

For the last half decade, Intra-Cellular Therapies can boast revenue growth at a rate of 64% per year. Even measured against other revenue-focussed companies, that's a good result. Meanwhile, its share price performance certainly reflects the strong growth, given the share price grew at 23% per year, compound, during the period. This suggests the market has well and truly recognized the progress the business has made. To our minds that makes Intra-Cellular Therapies worth investigating - it may have its best days ahead.

You can see below how earnings and revenue have changed over time (discover the exact values by clicking on the image).

Intra-Cellular Therapies is well known by investors, and plenty of clever analysts have tried to predict the future profit levels. You can see what analysts are predicting for Intra-Cellular Therapies in this interactive graph of future profit estimates.

A Different Perspective

Intra-Cellular Therapies shareholders gained a total return of 18% during the year. But that was short of the market average. It's probably a good sign that the company has an even better long term track record, having provided shareholders with an annual TSR of 23% over five years. It's quite possible the business continues to execute with prowess, even as the share price gains are slowing. 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. To that end, you should be aware of the 1 warning sign we've spotted with Intra-Cellular Therapies .

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.