As an investor its worth striving to ensure your overall portfolio beats the market average. But the risk of stock picking is that you will likely buy under-performing companies. Unfortunately, that's been the case for longer term NI Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:NODK) shareholders, since the share price is down 22% in the last three years, falling well short of the market return of around 20%. But it's up 5.1% in the last week. But this could be related to the strong market, with stocks up around 5.9% in the same time.

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.

View our latest analysis for NI Holdings

Given that NI Holdings didn't make a profit in the last twelve months, we'll focus on revenue growth to form a quick view of its business development. Shareholders of unprofitable companies usually expect strong revenue growth. That's because it's hard to be confident a company will be sustainable if revenue growth is negligible, and it never makes a profit.

In the last three years, NI Holdings saw its revenue grow by 4.9% per year, compound. Given it's losing money in pursuit of growth, we are not really impressed with that. The stock dropped 7% during that time. If revenue growth accelerates, we might see the share price bounce. But the real upside for shareholders will be if the company can start generating profits.

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

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

A Different Perspective

NI Holdings shareholders are down 7.6% for the year, but the market itself is up 16%. However, keep in mind that even the best stocks will sometimes underperform the market over a twelve month period. Regrettably, last year's performance caps off a bad run, with the shareholders facing a total loss of 3% 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. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand NI Holdings better, we need to consider many other factors. Consider risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 1 warning sign for NI Holdings you should know about.

We will like NI Holdings better if we see some big insider buys. While we wait, check out this free list of growing companies with considerable, recent, insider buying.