If you want to compound wealth in the stock market, you can do so by buying an index fund. But in our experience, buying the right stocks can give your wealth a significant boost. For example, the Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:LYV) share price is up 94% in the last five years, slightly above the market return. It's fair to say the stock has continued its long term trend in the last year, over which it has risen 60%.

While the stock has fallen 3.6% this week, it's worth focusing on the longer term and seeing if the stocks historical returns have been driven by the underlying fundamentals.

We don't think that Live Nation Entertainment's modest trailing twelve month profit has the market's full attention at the moment. We think revenue is probably a better guide. As a general rule, we think this kind of company is more comparable to loss-making stocks, since the actual profit is so low. For shareholders to have confidence a company will grow profits significantly, it must grow revenue.

In the last 5 years Live Nation Entertainment saw its revenue grow at 32% per year. That's well above most pre-profit companies. It's good to see that the stock has 14%, but not entirely surprising given revenue shows strong growth. If the strong revenue growth continues, we'd hope to see the share price to follow, in time. Of course, you'll have to research the business more fully to figure out if this is an attractive opportunity.

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

Live Nation Entertainment is well known by investors, and plenty of clever analysts have tried to predict the future profit levels. Given we have quite a good number of analyst forecasts, it might be well worth checking out this free chart depicting consensus estimates.

A Different Perspective

It's good to see that Live Nation Entertainment has rewarded shareholders with a total shareholder return of 60% in the last twelve months. That gain is better than the annual TSR over five years, which is 14%. Therefore it seems like sentiment around the company has been positive lately. In the best case scenario, this may hint at some real business momentum, implying that now could be a great time to delve deeper. 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. Case in point: We've spotted 1 warning sign for Live Nation Entertainment you should be aware of.

If you like to buy stocks alongside management, then you might just love this free list of companies. (Hint: many of them are unnoticed AND have attractive valuation).

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.