Ideally, your overall portfolio should beat the market average. But every investor is virtually certain to have both over-performing and under-performing stocks. At this point some shareholders may be questioning their investment in Vcanbio Cell & Gene Engineering Corp., Ltd (SHSE:600645), since the last five years saw the share price fall 25%. Shareholders have had an even rougher run lately, with the share price down 15% in the last 90 days.

While the last five years has been tough for Vcanbio Cell & Gene Engineering shareholders, this past week has shown signs of promise. So let's look at the longer term fundamentals and see if they've been the driver of the negative returns.

To quote Buffett, 'Ships will sail around the world but the Flat Earth Society will flourish. There will continue to be wide discrepancies between price and value in the marketplace...' One way to examine how market sentiment has changed over time is to look at the interaction between a company's share price and its earnings per share (EPS).

During the five years over which the share price declined, Vcanbio Cell & Gene Engineering's earnings per share (EPS) dropped by 21% each year. This fall in the EPS is worse than the 6% compound annual share price fall. The relatively muted share price reaction might be because the market expects the business to turn around. The high P/E ratio of 60.64 suggests that shareholders believe earnings will grow in the years ahead.

You can see how EPS has changed over time in the image below (click on the chart to see the exact values).

It might be well worthwhile taking a look at our free report on Vcanbio Cell & Gene Engineering's earnings, revenue and cash flow.

A Different Perspective

While it's certainly disappointing to see that Vcanbio Cell & Gene Engineering shares lost 6.2% throughout the year, that wasn't as bad as the market loss of 12%. Given the total loss of 5% per year over five years, it seems returns have deteriorated in the last twelve months. Whilst Baron Rothschild does tell the investor "buy when there's blood in the streets, even if the blood is your own", buyers would need to examine the data carefully to be comfortable that the business itself is sound. Is Vcanbio Cell & Gene Engineering cheap compared to other companies? These 3 valuation measures might help you decide.

If you are like me, then you will not want to miss this free list of growing companies that insiders are buying.

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on Chinese exchanges.

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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.