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 on a lighter note, a good company can see its share price rise well over 100%. For example, the Altair Engineering Inc. (NASDAQ:ALTR) share price has soared 174% in the last half decade. Most would be very happy with that. In the last week shares have slid back 2.1%.

With that in mind, it's worth seeing if the company's underlying fundamentals have been the driver of long term performance, or if there are some discrepancies.

See our latest analysis for Altair Engineering

We don't think that Altair Engineering's modest trailing twelve month profit has the market's full attention at the moment. We think revenue is probably a better guide. Generally speaking, we'd consider a stock like this alongside loss-making companies, simply because the quantum of the profit is so low. For shareholders to have confidence a company will grow profits significantly, it must grow revenue.

In the last 5 years Altair Engineering saw its revenue grow at 7.8% per year. That's a pretty good long term growth rate. Broadly speaking, this solid progress may well be reflected by the healthy share price gain of 22% per year over five years. It's well worth monitoring the growth trend in revenue, because if growth accelerates, that might signal an opportunity. When a growth trend accelerates, be it in revenue or earnings, it can indicate an inflection point for the business, which is can often be an opportunity for investors.

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

Altair Engineering 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 Altair Engineering in this interactive graph of future profit estimates.

A Different Perspective

It's nice to see that Altair Engineering shareholders have received a total shareholder return of 46% over the last year. That's better than the annualised return of 22% over half a decade, implying that the company is doing better recently. Given the share price momentum remains strong, it might be worth taking a closer look at the stock, lest you miss an opportunity. While it is well worth considering the different impacts that market conditions can have on the share price, there are other factors that are even more important. For example, we've discovered 1 warning sign for Altair Engineering that you should be aware of before investing here.

But note: Altair Engineering may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies with past earnings growth (and further growth forecast).

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.