Statistically speaking, long term investing is a profitable endeavour. But no-one is immune from buying too high. Zooming in on an example, the Cooper-Standard Holdings Inc. (NYSE:CPS) share price dropped 58% in the last half decade. That's not a lot of fun for true believers.

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 Cooper-Standard Holdings

Because Cooper-Standard Holdings made a loss in the last twelve months, we think the market is probably more focussed on revenue and revenue growth, at least for now. Generally speaking, companies without profits are expected to grow revenue every year, and at a good clip. 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.

Over half a decade Cooper-Standard Holdings reduced its trailing twelve month revenue by 2.0% for each year. While far from catastrophic that is not good. The share price decline of 10% compound, over five years, is understandable given the company is losing money, and revenue is moving in the wrong direction. The chance of imminent investor enthusiasm for this stock seems slimmer than Louise Brooks. Not that many investors like to invest in companies that are losing money and not growing revenue.

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

If you are thinking of buying or selling Cooper-Standard Holdings stock, you should check out this FREE detailed report on its balance sheet.

A Different Perspective

Cooper-Standard Holdings shareholders are up 16% for the year. Unfortunately this falls short of the market return. But at least that's still a gain! Over five years the TSR has been a reduction of 10% per year, over five years. So this might be a sign the business has turned its fortunes around. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Cooper-Standard Holdings better, we need to consider many other factors. Even so, be aware that Cooper-Standard Holdings is showing 2 warning signs in our investment analysis , and 1 of those is potentially serious...

But note: Cooper-Standard Holdings may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies with past earnings growth (and further growth forecast).

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