Revenue growth measures the percentage change in a company's trailing twelve-month revenue compared to [1 year / 3 years / 5 years] ago. It is the most fundamental growth metric and answers the basic question of whether the company's top line is expanding, contracting, or stagnating.
One-year revenue growth captures the most recent trend and is useful for identifying inflection points — accelerating or decelerating growth. Three-year growth provides a medium-term view that smooths out single-year anomalies and reveals whether the growth trajectory is sustainable. Five-year growth provides a long-term perspective that captures full business cycles and reveals the structural growth rate of the business.
Revenue growth should always be evaluated alongside margin trends. A company growing revenue at 20% but seeing margins compress may be buying growth at the expense of profitability. A company growing revenue at 8% with expanding margins may be creating more shareholder value.
Revenue Growth [1Y] = (Revenue TTM current / Revenue TTM 1 year ago) − 1 Revenue Growth [3Y] = (Revenue TTM current / Revenue TTM 3 years ago) − 1 Revenue Growth [5Y] = (Revenue TTM current / Revenue TTM 5 years ago) − 1
GeminIQ computes TTM revenue by summing the four most recent quarters, then compares to the same TTM period [1/3/5] years prior. All inputs are from SEC filings. The comparison is quarter-aligned (current period vs. the same quarter [4/12/20] quarters ago) to avoid seasonal distortion.
A: For 1-year growth: above 10% is strong for mature companies, above 20% for growth companies. For 3-year total growth: above 30% (roughly 9% annualized). For 5-year total growth: above 50% (roughly 8.5% annualized). Growth expectations vary dramatically by sector — a 5% growth rate is strong for a utility but weak for a SaaS company.
A: Quarterly revenue can be seasonal — a retailer's Q4 will always dwarf Q1. TTM revenue sums four quarters, which removes seasonal effects and provides a more stable, comparable growth figure. Comparing TTM-to-TTM also avoids the distortion of comparing a holiday quarter to a non-holiday quarter.
A: Growth rates are sensitive to the exact revenue figure used. If the platform's aggregator reclassifies certain revenue items (excise taxes, gains on sales, other income) during normalization, the base revenue changes and the growth rate follows. GeminIQ uses Revenue as filed in the SEC filing.