We're definitely into long term investing, but some companies are simply bad investments over any time frame. It hits us in the gut when we see fellow investors suffer a loss. Imagine if you held La Jolla Pharmaceutical Company (NASDAQ:LJPC) for half a decade as the share price tanked 87%. And it's not just long term holders hurting, because the stock is down 60% in the last year. Shareholders have had an even rougher run lately, with the share price down 42% in the last 90 days. We note that the company has reported results fairly recently; and the market is hardly delighted. You can check out the latest numbers in our company report.

We really hope anyone holding through that price crash has a diversified portfolio. Even when you lose money, you don't have to lose the lesson.

Check out our latest analysis for La Jolla Pharmaceutical

Because La Jolla Pharmaceutical made a loss in the last twelve months, we think the market is probably more focussed on revenue and revenue growth, at least for now. Generally speaking, companies without profits are expected to grow revenue every year, and at a good clip. That's because it's hard to be confident a company will be sustainable if revenue growth is negligible, and it never makes a profit.

In the last half decade, La Jolla Pharmaceutical saw its revenue increase by 70% per year. That's well above most other pre-profit companies. So on the face of it we're really surprised to see the share price has averaged a fall of 13% each year, in the same time period. It could be that the stock was over-hyped before. While there might be an opportunity here, you'd want to take a close look at the balance sheet strength.

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

You can see how its balance sheet has strengthened (or weakened) over time in this free interactive graphic.

A Different Perspective

La Jolla Pharmaceutical shareholders are down 60% for the year, but the market itself is up 20%. However, keep in mind that even the best stocks will sometimes underperform the market over a twelve month period. Unfortunately, last year's performance may indicate unresolved challenges, given that it was worse than the annualised loss of 13% over the last half decade. We realise that Baron Rothschild has said investors should "buy when there is blood on the streets", but we caution that investors should first be sure they are buying a high quality business. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand La Jolla Pharmaceutical better, we need to consider many other factors. For instance, we've identified 1 warning sign for La Jolla Pharmaceutical that you should be aware of.