The main aim of stock picking is to find the market-beating stocks. But every investor is virtually certain to have both over-performing and under-performing stocks. At this point some shareholders may be questioning their investment in Berry Corporation (NASDAQ:BRY), since the last five years saw the share price fall 24%. Furthermore, it's down 22% in about a quarter. That's not much fun for holders.

Now let's have a look at the company's fundamentals, and see if the long term shareholder return has matched the performance of the underlying business.

See our latest analysis for Berry

While Berry made a small profit, in the last year, we think that the market is probably more focussed on the top line growth at the moment. Generally speaking, we'd consider a stock like this alongside loss-making companies, simply because the quantum of the profit is so low. It would be hard to believe in a more profitable future without growing revenues.

In the last half decade, Berry saw its revenue increase by 14% per year. That's a pretty good rate for a long time period. Shareholders have seen the share price fall at 4% per year, for five years: a poor performance. Those who bought back then clearly believed in stronger growth - and maybe even profits. There is always a big risk of losing money yourself when you buy shares in a company that loses money.

The company's revenue and earnings (over time) are depicted in the image below (click to see the exact numbers).

It is of course excellent to see how Berry has grown profits over the years, but the future is more important for shareholders. If you are thinking of buying or selling Berry stock, you should check out this FREE detailed report on its balance sheet.

What About Dividends?

It is important to consider the total shareholder return, as well as the share price return, for any given stock. Whereas the share price return only reflects the change in the share price, the TSR includes the value of dividends (assuming they were reinvested) and the benefit of any discounted capital raising or spin-off. It's fair to say that the TSR gives a more complete picture for stocks that pay a dividend. We note that for Berry the TSR over the last 5 years was 14%, which is better than the share price return mentioned above. This is largely a result of its dividend payments!

A Different Perspective

Berry shareholders are down 2.1% for the year (even including dividends), but the market itself is up 20%. Even the share prices of good stocks drop sometimes, but we want to see improvements in the fundamental metrics of a business, before getting too interested. Longer term investors wouldn't be so upset, since they would have made 3%, each year, over five years. If the fundamental data continues to indicate long term sustainable growth, the current sell-off could be an opportunity worth considering. While it is well worth considering the different impacts that market conditions can have on the share price, there are other factors that are even more important. Case in point: We've spotted 4 warning signs for Berry you should be aware of, and 1 of them is potentially serious.