As a long-term investor, business fundamentals matter more to me than the near-term fluctuations in stock price. That’s because if a company can grow its free cash flow per share every year, the share price will likely follow suit over the long term. But this does not mean that a company which has a bad year will be a bad investment. The truth is that businesses don’t grow in straight lines. Even the fastest growing companies have periods of time when growth decelerated or even turned negative. Business growth depends on a host of factors, some of which are not within the control of companies.  Let’s take Apple for example. Today, Apple is the largest listed company in the world but its business experienced ups and downs along the way. The table below shows Apple’s revenue and revenue growth from 2007 to 2021 Source: Apple annual reports From 2008...