Just Group (LON:JUST investor five-year losses grow to 43% as the stock sheds UK£78m this past week

In order to justify the effort of selecting individual stocks, it's worth striving to beat the returns from a market index fund. 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 Just Group plc (LON:JUST), since the last five years saw the share price fall 45%. And the share price decline continued over the last week, dropping some 8.6%.

If the past week is anything to go by, investor sentiment for Just Group isn't positive, so let's see if there's a mismatch between fundamentals and the share price.

View our latest analysis for Just Group

Because Just Group 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 does expect good top-line growth.

Over half a decade Just Group reduced its trailing twelve month revenue by 6.1% for each year. While far from catastrophic that is not good. The stock hasn't done well for shareholders in the last five years, falling 8%, annualized. But it doesn't surprise given the falling revenue. Without profits, its hard to see how shareholders win if the revenue keeps falling.

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

This free interactive report on Just Group's balance sheet strength is a great place to start, if you want to investigate the stock further.

A Different Perspective

Just Group provided a TSR of 5.9% over the last twelve months. But that return falls short of the market. But at least that's still a gain! Over five years the TSR has been a reduction of 7% per year, over five years. So this might be a sign the business has turned its fortunes around. 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. Even so, be aware that Just Group is showing 1 warning sign in our investment analysis , you should know about...

For those who like to find winning investments this free list of growing companies with recent insider purchasing, could be just the ticket.

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