The main aim of stock picking is to find the market-beating stocks. But the main game is to find enough winners to more than offset the losers At this point some shareholders may be questioning their investment in Cathay Pacific Airways Limited (HKG:293), since the last five years saw the share price fall 31%.

Since shareholders are down over the longer term, lets look at the underlying fundamentals over the that time and see if they've been consistent with returns.

Check out our latest analysis for Cathay Pacific Airways

Cathay Pacific Airways isn't currently profitable, so most analysts would look to revenue growth to get an idea of how fast the underlying business is growing. When a company doesn't make profits, we'd generally expect to see good revenue growth. That's because fast revenue growth can be easily extrapolated to forecast profits, often of considerable size.

Over half a decade Cathay Pacific Airways reduced its trailing twelve month revenue by 19% for each year. That puts it in an unattractive cohort, to put it mildly. It seems pretty reasonable to us that the share price dipped 6% per year in that time. We doubt many shareholders are delighted with this share price performance. It is possible for businesses to bounce back but as Buffett says, 'turnarounds seldom turn'.

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

Cathay Pacific Airways is a well known stock, with plenty of analyst coverage, suggesting some visibility into future growth. You can see what analysts are predicting for Cathay Pacific Airways in this interactive graph of future profit estimates.

What About The Total Shareholder Return (TSR)?

We'd be remiss not to mention the difference between Cathay Pacific Airways' total shareholder return (TSR) and its share price return. 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. Dividends have been really beneficial for Cathay Pacific Airways shareholders, and that cash payout explains why its total shareholder loss of 18%, over the last 5 years, isn't as bad as the share price return.

A Different Perspective

It's good to see that Cathay Pacific Airways has rewarded shareholders with a total shareholder return of 26% in the last twelve months. There's no doubt those recent returns are much better than the TSR loss of 3% per year over five years. This makes us a little wary, but the business might have turned around its fortunes. Most investors take the time to check the data on insider transactions. You can click here to see if insiders have been buying or selling.

If you like to buy stocks alongside management, then you might just love this free list of companies. (Hint: insiders have been buying them).

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on HK exchanges.

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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.