Clearwater Paper Corporation (NYSE:CLW) shareholders should be happy to see the share price up 25% in the last quarter. But that is minimal compensation for the share price under-performance over the last year. In fact, the price has declined 45% in a year, falling short of the returns you could get by investing in an index fund.

It’s worthwhile assessing if the company’s economics have been moving in lockstep with these underwhelming shareholder returns, or if there is some disparity between the two. So let’s do just that.

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Clearwater Paper 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. 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 twelve months, Clearwater Paper increased its revenue by 73%. That’s a strong result which is better than most other loss making companies. The share price drop of 45% over twelve months would be considered disappointing by many, so you might argue the company is getting little credit for its impressive revenue growth. On the bright side, if this company is moving profits in the right direction, top-line growth like that could be an opportunity.

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

Take a more thorough look at Clearwater Paper’s financial health with this free report on its balance sheet.

Investors in Clearwater Paper had a tough year, with a total loss of 45%, against a market gain of about 13%. Even the share prices of good stocks drop sometimes, but we want to see improvements in the fundamental metrics of a business, before getting too interested. Regrettably, last year’s performance caps off a bad run, with the shareholders facing a total loss of 4% per year over five years. Generally speaking long term share price weakness can be a bad sign, though contrarian investors might want to research the stock in hope of a turnaround. 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 for instance, the ever-present spectre of investment risk. We’ve identified 1 warning sign with Clearwater Paper , and understanding them should be part of your investment process.