How much a stock's price changes over time is important for most investors, since price performance can both impact your investment portfolio and help you compare investment results across sectors and industries.

Another thing that can drive investing is the fear of missing out, or FOMO. This particularly applies to tech giants and popular consumer-facing stocks.

What if you'd invested in Louisiana-Pacific (LPX Quick QuoteLPX - Free Report) ten years ago? It may not have been easy to hold on to LPX for all that time, but if you did, how much would your investment be worth today?

Louisiana-Pacific's Business In-Depth

With that in mind, let's take a look at Louisiana-Pacific's main business drivers.

Louisiana-Pacific Corporation is a leading manufacturer of sustainable, quality engineered wood building materials, structural framing products as well as exterior siding for use in residential, industrial and light commercial construction. Currently, the company operates 20 moderns, strategically located facilities in the United States and Canada, two facilities in Chile and one facility in Brazil. It also operates facilities through a joint venture. The company’s products are used primarily in new home construction, repair as well as remodeling and outdoor structures.

The company has four reportable segments — Siding (contributing 26% of 2021 net sales), Oriented Strand Board or OSB (52%), Engineered Wood Products or EWP (14%) and South America (6%). Notably, revenues from Other sources accounted for 2% of its total net sales.

Siding segment consists of LP SmartSide trim and siding, as well as LP Outdoor Building Solutions innovative products for premium outdoor buildings.

OSB segment manufactures and distributes OSB structural panel products including LP OSB, LP TechShield radiant barrier, LP TopNotch sub-flooring, LP Legacy super tough, moisture-resistant sub-flooring, LP WeatherLogic air & water barrier and LP FlameBlock fire-rated sheathing.

EWP segment comprises LP SolidStart I-Joist (IJ), Laminated Veneer Lumber (LVL) and Laminated Strand Lumber (LSL) and other related products.

South America segment manufactures and distributes OSB and siding products in South America and certain export markets. South America segment manufactures and distributes OSB and siding products in South America and certain export markets.

Bottom Line

Anyone can invest, but building a successful investment portfolio takes a combination of a few things: research, patience, and a little bit of risk. So, if you had invested in Louisiana-Pacific a decade ago, you're probably feeling pretty good about your investment today.

A $1000 investment made in March 2012 would be worth $7,228.60, or a 622.86% gain, as of March 18, 2022, according to our calculations. Investors should note that this return excludes dividends but includes price increases.

Compare this to the S&P 500's rally of 214.18% and gold's return of 12.15% over the same time frame.

Going forward, analysts are expecting more upside for LPX.

Louisiana-Pacific's shares declined recently despite strong fourth-quarter 2021 earnings and net sales. The company witnessed a gross-margin contraction of 690 basis points and an adjusted EBITDA decline of 7% during the quarter due to increased investments, raw material inflation, and slightly lower OSB prices. The company is grappling with raw materials and freight inflation. Also, sales volume fell 2% due to lower production owing to the major planned outage for the press rebuild at the mill in Manitoba. LPX expects 2022 will likely bring new challenges as inflation continues to exert upward pressure on prices for raw materials and freight. That said, solid housing and repair/remodel activity, strategic business transformation, effective cash management and inorganic moves are likely to aid the company.

The stock is up 5.57% over the past four weeks, and no earnings estimate has gone lower in the past two months, compared to 3 higher, for fiscal 2022. The consensus estimate has moved up as well.