When you buy and hold a stock for the long term, you definitely want it to provide a positive return. Furthermore, you'd generally like to see the share price rise faster than the market. But 1895 Bancorp of Wisconsin, Inc. (NASDAQ:BCOW) has fallen short of that second goal, with a share price rise of 28% over five years, which is below the market return. Over the last twelve months the stock price has risen a very respectable 16%.

So let's investigate and see if the longer term performance of the company has been in line with the underlying business' progress.

Check out our latest analysis for 1895 Bancorp of Wisconsin

1895 Bancorp of Wisconsin 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.

Over the last half decade 1895 Bancorp of Wisconsin's revenue has actually been trending down at about 4.7% per year. The stock is only up 5% for each year during the period. That's pretty decent given the top line decline, and lack of profits. We'd keep an eye on changes in the trend - there may be an opportunity if the company returns to growth.

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

It's probably worth noting that the CEO is paid less than the median at similar sized companies. It's always worth keeping an eye on CEO pay, but a more important question is whether the company will grow earnings throughout the years. Dive deeper into the earnings by checking this interactive graph of 1895 Bancorp of Wisconsin's earnings, revenue and cash flow.

A Different Perspective

1895 Bancorp of Wisconsin shareholders are up 16% for the year. Unfortunately this falls short of the market return. The silver lining is that the gain was actually better than the average annual return of 5% per year over five year. This could indicate that the company is winning over new investors, as it pursues its strategy. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand 1895 Bancorp of Wisconsin better, we need to consider many other factors. Take risks, for example - 1895 Bancorp of Wisconsin has 2 warning signs (and 1 which makes us a bit uncomfortable) we think you should know about.