Even after rising 30% this past week, IQE (LON:IQE) shareholders are still down 88% over the past five years

Simply Wall St

Wed, February 11, 2026 at 2:09 PM GMT+9 2 min read

In this article:

IQEPF

+30.84%

IQEPY

-12.19%

It is a pleasure to report that the IQE plc (LON:IQE) is up 77% in the last quarter. But will that heal all the wounds inflicted over 5 years of declines? Unlikely. Five years have seen the share price descend precipitously, down a full 88%. So we don’t gain too much confidence from the recent recovery. The million dollar question is whether the company can justify a long term recovery. 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.

While the last five years has been tough for IQE shareholders, this past week has shown signs of promise. So let’s look at the longer term fundamentals and see if they’ve been the driver of the negative returns.

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IQE isn’t currently profitable, so most analysts would look to revenue growth to get an idea of how fast the underlying business is growing. When a company doesn’t make profits, we’d generally hope to see good revenue growth. That’s because fast revenue growth can be easily extrapolated to forecast profits, often of considerable size.

In the last five years IQE saw its revenue shrink by 10% per year. That puts it in an unattractive cohort, to put it mildly. So it’s not that strange that the share price dropped 13% per year in that period. We don’t think this is a particularly promising picture. Of course, the poor performance could mean the market has been too severe selling down. That can happen.

You can see below how earnings and revenue have changed over time (discover the exact values by clicking on the image).

AIM:IQE Earnings and Revenue Growth February 11th 2026

This free interactive report on IQE’s balance sheet strength is a great place to start, if you want to investigate the stock further.

A Different Perspective

Investors in IQE had a tough year, with a total loss of 42%, against a market gain of about 24%. However, keep in mind that even the best stocks will sometimes underperform the market over a twelve month period. Regrettably, last year’s performance caps off a bad run, with the shareholders facing a total loss of 13% per year over five years. Generally speaking long term share price weakness can be a bad sign, though contrarian investors might want to research the stock in hope of a turnaround. It’s always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand IQE better, we need to consider many other factors. For instance, we’ve identified ** 2 warning signs for IQE** that you should be aware of.

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Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of companies we expect will grow earnings.

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on British exchanges.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch** with us directly.**_ Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com._

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.

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