While shareholders of Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) are in the black over 5 years, those who bought a week ago aren't so fortunate

Long term investing can be life changing when you buy and hold the truly great businesses. And we've seen some truly amazing gains over the years. Just think about the savvy investors who held Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) shares for the last five years, while they gained 419%. If that doesn't get you thinking about long term investing, we don't know what will. It's also good to see the share price up 37% over the last quarter. The company reported its financial results recently; you can catch up on the latest numbers by reading our company report.

While this past week has detracted from the company's five-year return, let's look at the recent trends of the underlying business and see if the gains have been in alignment.

View our latest analysis for Moderna

Because Moderna 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. Shareholders of unprofitable companies usually desire strong revenue growth. As you can imagine, fast revenue growth, when maintained, often leads to fast profit growth.

For the last half decade, Moderna can boast revenue growth at a rate of 40% per year. That's well above most pre-profit companies. Arguably, this is well and truly reflected in the strong share price gain of 39%(per year) over the same period. Despite the strong run, top performers like Moderna have been known to go on winning for decades. On the face of it, this looks lke a good opportunity, although we note sentiment seems very positive already.

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

Moderna is a well known stock, with plenty of analyst coverage, suggesting some visibility into future growth. If you are thinking of buying or selling Moderna stock, you should check out this free report showing analyst consensus estimates for future profits.

A Different Perspective

While the broader market gained around 28% in the last year, Moderna shareholders lost 9.9%. However, keep in mind that even the best stocks will sometimes underperform the market over a twelve month period. Longer term investors wouldn't be so upset, since they would have made 39%, each year, over five years. It could be that the recent sell-off is an opportunity, so it may be worth checking the fundamental data for signs of a long term growth trend. 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 Moderna .

Of course Moderna 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 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.