Rolls-Royce (LSE:RR.) shares have shown remarkable stability over the past three years. In 2023, 2024 and 2025 the stock price doubled or came very close. The excellent share price made many investors wonder whether this could be achieved within four years.

Early symptoms? They are on their way…

Good news

Since the beginning of the year, the Rolls-Royce share price has increased by 16%. Of course, this is early days – as I write this, the calendars have only hit January and February – but this is almost exactly the trajectory that will drive the stock price to a 100% gain by the time New Year’s Eve 2027 rolls around.

What’s the good news? It’s challenging to look beyond the February 26 full-year stock update. The success of previous years was based on subsequent earnings records and impressive numbers. And these numbers were really impressive…

The main value was the raise in underlying operating profit by 40%, which again exceeded analysts’ expectations. As cash flow increased, Rolls-Royce was able to commit as much as £9 billion to share buybacks over the coming years. The stock price increased by 7% during the day, although it moved away from this level by the end of the session.

CEO Tufan Erginbilgiç could be accused of understatement with his comment: “Our transformation continues with pace and intensity.”

A notable detail was the company’s role in the artificial intelligence boom. Rolls-Royce backup generators are the perfect complement to the high energy demands of AI data centers.

Cold water

Now let’s pour some frosty water on the emotions. A company’s market value doubling in one year is very scarce, and the larger the company, the rarer it is.

Rolls-Royce currently boasts a market capitalization of £115 billion and is one of the UK’s largest companies. And a profit of 100% would mean that it is very close to the two fighting for it FTSE100 currently the highest place – AstraZeneca AND HSBC.

Another issue is that much of the previous growth was not due to increased profits, but to increased valuation. Fundamentally, investors like the look of the engineering giant’s future prospects, which is why the stock has been priced at a premium. Rolls-Royce currently trades at 40 times futures earnings. That’s a price more reminiscent of a pioneering tech company than a tedious aged manufacturer.

Combined, these two factors mean that maintaining this powerful performance will be more tough than ever.

With all this? I still think the stock is worth considering. And because I follow this site’s stupid approach, I don’t worry about this or the next; I’m thinking about the long term. And based on this, Rolls-Royce seems to me to be in very good shape.