For many, the main point of investing in the stock market is to achieve spectacular returns. While the best companies are hard to find, but they can generate massive returns over long periods. To wit, the BioNTech SE (NASDAQ:BNTX) share price has soared 741% over five years. And this is just one example of the epic gains achieved by some long term investors. It's also good to see the share price up 50% over the last quarter. Anyone who held for that rewarding ride would probably be keen to talk about it.

With that in mind, it's worth seeing if the company's underlying fundamentals have been the driver of long term performance, or if there are some discrepancies.

View our latest analysis for BioNTech

Given that BioNTech didn't make a profit in the last twelve months, we'll focus on revenue growth to form a quick view of its business development. When a company doesn't make profits, we'd generally hope to see good revenue growth. Some companies are willing to postpone profitability to grow revenue faster, but in that case one would hope for good top-line growth to make up for the lack of earnings.

In the last 5 years BioNTech saw its revenue grow at 26% per year. That's well above most pre-profit companies. Fortunately, the market has not missed this, and has pushed the share price up by 53% per year in that time. It's never too late to start following a top notch stock like BioNTech, since some long term winners go on winning for decades. On the face of it, this looks lke a good opportunity, although we note sentiment seems very positive already.

You can see how earnings and revenue have changed over time in the image below (click on the chart to see the exact values).

We're pleased to report that the CEO is remunerated more modestly than most CEOs at similarly capitalized companies. It's always worth keeping an eye on CEO pay, but a more important question is whether the company will grow earnings throughout the years. If you are thinking of buying or selling BioNTech stock, you should check out this free report showing analyst profit forecasts.

What About The Total Shareholder Return (TSR)?

We'd be remiss not to mention the difference between BioNTech's total shareholder return (TSR) and its share price return. Arguably the TSR is a more complete return calculation because it accounts for the value of dividends (as if they were reinvested), along with the hypothetical value of any discounted capital that have been offered to shareholders. BioNTech hasn't been paying dividends, but its TSR of 749% exceeds its share price return of 741%, implying it has either spun-off a business, or raised capital at a discount; thereby providing additional value to shareholders.