I've studied reverse splits for the 1995-2000 ish period (don't remember exact dates).
Majority of companies who reversed split were heading lower before the split and proceeded to continue along with their trajectory after the split.
Usually reverse splits are engineered to get around a threat of delisting because the stock was hammered so badly that it started to flunk the minimum price requirements (it's a formula, so reverse split watchers might want to track that).