Despite losses, Riot Platforms investors enjoy 410% return over past 3 years

Riot Platforms, Inc. ($RIOT) shareholders have seen the share price descend 21% over the month. But over the last three years the stock has shone bright like a diamond. Indeed, the share price is up a whopping 410% in that time. As long term investors the recent fall doesn't detract all that much from the longer term story. Only time will tell if there is still too much optimism currently reflected in the share price.

While the stock has fallen 8.1% this week, it's worth focusing on the longer term and seeing if the stocks historical returns have been driven by the underlying fundamentals.

Because Riot Platforms made a loss in the last twelve months, the market is probably more focussed on revenue and revenue growth, at least for now. When a company doesn't make profits, it is generally expected to see good revenue growth. As you can imagine, fast revenue growth, when maintained, often leads to fast profit growth.

Riot Platforms' revenue trended up 83% each year over three years. That's well above most pre-profit companies. And it's not just the revenue that is taking off. The share price is up 72% per year in that time. Despite the strong run, top performers like Riot Platforms have been known to go on winning for decades. In fact, it might be time to put it on your watchlist, if you're not already familiar with the stock.

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A Different Perspective

It's good to see that Riot Platforms has rewarded shareholders with a total shareholder return of 33% in the last twelve months. Since the one-year TSR is better than the five-year TSR (the latter coming in at 3% per year), it would seem that the stock's performance has improved in recent times. Someone with an optimistic perspective could view the recent improvement in TSR as indicating that the business itself is getting better with time. I find it very interesting to look at share price over the long term as a proxy for business performance.