Revenue CAGR (3y / 5y / 10y)

Growth

The compound annual growth rate of revenue over roughly the last 3, 5, and 10 fiscal years.

Formula

Revenue CAGR = (latest revenue ÷ base-year revenue)^(1 ÷ years) − 1

Why it matters

Revenue is the top of the funnel: every dollar of profit and cash flow ultimately has to come from a sale. A business that cannot grow revenue must rely on margin expansion or buybacks to grow per-share value, and both of those eventually run out. Comparing the 3-year, 5-year, and 10-year rates also shows whether growth is accelerating or fading — a 10-year rate far above the 3-year rate suggests the best years may be behind the company.

What good looks like

Above 10% a year is genuine growth for a large company. 4–10% is solid, roughly GDP-plus. Below 4% is slow growth, and a negative rate means the business is shrinking. We anchor the CAGR at the fiscal year closest to the target span, so a '5y' figure may actually cover 4 or 6 years depending on the filing history.

Caveats

CAGR only looks at two endpoints, so an unusually weak base year or a one-time spike in the latest year can distort it. Acquisitions can buy revenue growth that says nothing about the underlying business. Cyclical companies (energy, semiconductors, autos) can show spectacular or terrible CAGRs depending purely on where the endpoints fall in the cycle — check the year-by-year series before trusting the summary number.