Passive investing in an index fund is a good way to ensure your own returns roughly match the overall market. Active investors aim to buy stocks that vastly outperform the market - but in the process, they risk under-performance. Investors in Round Hill Music Royalty Fund Limited (LON:RHM) have tasted that bitter downside in the last year, as the share price dropped 20%. That falls noticeably short of the market decline of around 11%. Round Hill Music Royalty Fund hasn't been listed for long, so although we're wary of recent listings that perform poorly, it may still prove itself with time. Shareholders have had an even rougher run lately, with the share price down 16% in the last 90 days.

If the past week is anything to go by, investor sentiment for Round Hill Music Royalty Fund isn't positive, so let's see if there's a mismatch between fundamentals and the share price.

View our latest analysis for Round Hill Music Royalty Fund

Round Hill Music Royalty Fund wasn't profitable in the last twelve months, it is unlikely we'll see a strong correlation between its share price and its earnings per share (EPS). Arguably revenue is our next best option. 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.

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 Round Hill Music Royalty Fund stock, you should check out this FREE detailed report on its balance sheet.

What About Dividends?

It is important to consider the total shareholder return, as well as the share price return, for any given stock. Whereas the share price return only reflects the change in the share price, the TSR includes the value of dividends (assuming they were reinvested) and the benefit of any discounted capital raising or spin-off. So for companies that pay a generous dividend, the TSR is often a lot higher than the share price return. As it happens, Round Hill Music Royalty Fund's TSR for the last 1 year was -16%, which exceeds the share price return mentioned earlier. This is largely a result of its dividend payments!

A Different Perspective

Round Hill Music Royalty Fund shareholders are down 16% for the year (even including dividends), even worse than the market loss of 11%. There's no doubt that's a disappointment, but the stock may well have fared better in a stronger market. With the stock down 16% over the last three months, the market doesn't seem to believe that the company has solved all its problems. Basically, most investors should be wary of buying into a poor-performing stock, unless the business itself has clearly improved. 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. To that end, you should be aware of the 4 warning signs we've spotted with Round Hill Music Royalty Fund .