Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. (NYSE:LGF.A) shareholders should be happy to see the share price up 16% in the last month. But that is small recompense for the exasperating returns over three years. Indeed, the share price is down a tragic 54% in the last three years. Some might say the recent bounce is to be expected after such a bad drop. After all, could be that the fall was overdone.

Although the past week has been more reassuring for shareholders, they're still in the red over the last three years, so let's see if the underlying business has been responsible for the decline.

See our latest analysis for Lions Gate Entertainment

Given that Lions Gate Entertainment didn't make a profit in the last twelve months, we'll focus on revenue growth to form a quick view of its business development. When a company doesn't make profits, we'd generally hope to see good revenue growth. As you can imagine, fast revenue growth, when maintained, often leads to fast profit growth.

Over three years, Lions Gate Entertainment grew revenue at 6.7% per year. That's not a very high growth rate considering it doesn't make profits. This uninspiring revenue growth has no doubt helped send the share price lower; it dropped 15% during the period. When a stock falls hard like this, some investors like to add the company to a watchlist (in case the business recovers, longer term). Keep in mind it isn't unusual for good businesses to have a tough time or a couple of uninspiring years.

The graphic below depicts how earnings and revenue have changed over time (unveil the exact values by clicking on the image).

We like that insiders have been buying shares in the last twelve months. Having said that, most people consider earnings and revenue growth trends to be a more meaningful guide to the business. This free report showing analyst forecasts should help you form a view on Lions Gate Entertainment

A Different Perspective

Lions Gate Entertainment shareholders gained a total return of 8.8% 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 4% per year, over five years. It could well be that the business is stabilizing. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Lions Gate Entertainment better, we need to consider many other factors. Take risks, for example - Lions Gate Entertainment has 2 warning signs (and 1 which is significant) we think you should know about.