While it may not be enough for some shareholders, we think it is good to see the RingCentral, Inc. (NYSE:RNG) share price up 13% in a single quarter. But that is meagre solace in the face of the shocking decline over three years. To wit, the share price sky-dived 86% in that time. So it sure is nice to see a bit of an improvement. Of course the real question is whether the business can sustain a turnaround. While a drop like that is definitely a body blow, money isn't as important as health and happiness.

It's worthwhile assessing if the company's economics have been moving in lockstep with these underwhelming shareholder returns, or if there is some disparity between the two. So let's do just that.

RingCentral 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. That's because fast revenue growth can be easily extrapolated to forecast profits, often of considerable size.

In the last three years, RingCentral saw its revenue grow by 16% per year, compound. That's a pretty good rate of top-line growth. So it seems unlikely the 23% share price drop (each year) is entirely about the revenue. More likely, the market was spooked by the cost of that revenue. If you buy into companies that lose money then you always risk losing money yourself. Just don't lose the lesson.

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

RingCentral 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 RingCentral in this interactive graph of future profit estimates.

A Different Perspective

RingCentral shareholders gained a total return of 6.2% during the year. Unfortunately this falls short of the market return. But at least that's still a gain! Over five years the TSR has been a reduction of 12% per year, over five years. So this might be a sign the business has turned its fortunes around. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand RingCentral better, we need to consider many other factors. Like risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 2 warning signs for RingCentral (of which 1 is significant!) you should know about.

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of companies we expect will grow earnings.

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.