In order to justify the effort of selecting individual stocks, it's worth striving to beat the returns from a market index fund. But even the best stock picker will only win with some selections. So we wouldn't blame long term Bakkavor Group plc (LON:BAKK) shareholders for doubting their decision to hold, with the stock down 40% over a half decade. Furthermore, it's down 12% in about a quarter. That's not much fun for holders.

So let's have a look and see if the longer term performance of the company has been in line with the underlying business' progress.

View our latest analysis for Bakkavor Group

To quote Buffett, 'Ships will sail around the world but the Flat Earth Society will flourish. There will continue to be wide discrepancies between price and value in the marketplace...' One imperfect but simple way to consider how the market perception of a company has shifted is to compare the change in the earnings per share (EPS) with the share price movement.

Looking back five years, both Bakkavor Group's share price and EPS declined; the latter at a rate of 29% per year. This fall in the EPS is worse than the 10% compound annual share price fall. The relatively muted share price reaction might be because the market expects the business to turn around.

You can see below how EPS has changed over time (discover the exact values by clicking on the image).

Dive deeper into Bakkavor Group's key metrics by checking this interactive graph of Bakkavor Group's earnings, revenue and cash flow.

What About Dividends?

It is important to consider the total shareholder return, as well as the share price return, for any given stock. The TSR is a return calculation that accounts for the value of cash dividends (assuming that any dividend received was reinvested) and the calculated value of any discounted capital raisings and spin-offs. It's fair to say that the TSR gives a more complete picture for stocks that pay a dividend. As it happens, Bakkavor Group's TSR for the last 5 years was -24%, which exceeds the share price return mentioned earlier. The dividends paid by the company have thusly boosted the total shareholder return.

A Different Perspective

Investors in Bakkavor Group had a tough year, with a total loss of 5.8% (including dividends), against a market gain of about 1.6%. 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. Regrettably, last year's performance caps off a bad run, with the shareholders facing a total loss of 4% per year over five years. Generally speaking long term share price weakness can be a bad sign, though contrarian investors might want to research the stock in hope of a turnaround. I find it very interesting to look at share price over the long term as a proxy for business performance. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too. Consider for instance, the ever-present spectre of investment risk. We've identified 4 warning signs with Bakkavor Group , and understanding them should be part of your investment process.