The five-year returns have been notable for Konica Minolta (TSE:4902) shareholders despite underlying losses increasing

The main point of investing for the long term is to make money. But more than that, you probably want to see it rise more than the market average. But Konica Minolta, Inc. (TSE:4902) has fallen short of that second goal, with a share price rise of 69% over five years, which is below the market return. However, more recent buyers should be happy with the increase of 27% over the last year.

Since it's been a strong week for Konica Minolta shareholders, let's have a look at trend of the longer term fundamentals.

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Konica Minolta 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 hope to see good revenue growth. That's because fast revenue growth can be easily extrapolated to forecast profits, often of considerable size.

In the last 5 years Konica Minolta saw its revenue grow at 7.0% per year. That's a fairly respectable growth rate. The annual gain of 11% over five years is better than nothing, but falls short of the market. You could even argue that the share price was over optimistic, previously.

You can see below how earnings and revenue have changed over time (discover the exact values by clicking on the image).

Konica Minolta is well known by investors, and plenty of clever analysts have tried to predict the future profit levels. You can see what analysts are predicting for Konica Minolta in this interactive graph of future profit estimates.

What About Dividends?

As well as measuring the share price return, investors should also consider the total shareholder return (TSR). 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. We note that for Konica Minolta the TSR over the last 5 years was 95%, which is better than the share price return mentioned above. The dividends paid by the company have thusly boosted the total shareholder return.

A Different Perspective

It's good to see that Konica Minolta has rewarded shareholders with a total shareholder return of 27% in the last twelve months. Of course, that includes the dividend. Since the one-year TSR is better than the five-year TSR (the latter coming in at 14% per year), it would seem that the stock's performance has improved in recent times. Someone with an optimistic perspective could view the recent improvement in TSR as indicating that the business itself is getting better with time. 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 risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 1 warning sign for Konica Minolta you should know about.

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