By buying an index fund, investors can approximate the average market return. But if you choose individual stocks with prowess, you can make superior returns. Just take a look at Deveron Corp. (CVE:FARM), which is up 100%, over three years, soundly beating the market return of 17% (not including dividends).

Now it's worth having a look at the company's fundamentals too, because that will help us determine if the long term shareholder return has matched the performance of the underlying business.

See our latest analysis for Deveron

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

Deveron's revenue trended up 71% each year over three years. That's well above most pre-profit companies. The share price rise of 26% per year throughout that time is nice to see, and given the revenue growth, that gain seems somewhat justified. If that's the case, now might be the time to take a close look at Deveron. A window of opportunity may reveal itself with time, if the business can trend to profitability.

The company's revenue and earnings (over time) are depicted in the image below (click to see the exact numbers).

We like that insiders have been buying shares in the last twelve months. Having said that, most people consider earnings and revenue growth trends to be a more meaningful guide to the business. This free report showing analyst forecasts should help you form a view on Deveron

A Different Perspective

While the broader market lost about 0.1% in the twelve months, Deveron shareholders did even worse, losing 33%. Having said that, it's inevitable that some stocks will be oversold in a falling market. The key is to keep your eyes on the fundamental developments. On the bright side, long term shareholders have made money, with a gain of 14% per year over half a decade. If the fundamental data continues to indicate long term sustainable growth, the current sell-off could be an opportunity worth considering. While it is well worth considering the different impacts that market conditions can have on the share price, there are other factors that are even more important. For example, we've discovered 4 warning signs for Deveron that you should be aware of before investing here.

Deveron is not the only stock that insiders are buying. For those who like to find winning investments this free list of growing companies with recent insider purchasing, could be just the ticket.