For many, the main point of investing is to generate higher returns than the overall market. 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 Garrett Motion Inc. (NASDAQ:GTX), since the last five years saw the share price fall 43%.

While the last five years has been tough for Garrett Motion 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, Garrett Motion's earnings per share (EPS) dropped by 72% each year. The share price decline of 11% per year isn't as bad as the EPS decline. The relatively muted share price reaction might be because the market expects the business to turn around. The high P/E ratio of 344.64 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 Garrett Motion's earnings, revenue and cash flow.

A Different Perspective

Garrett Motion provided a TSR of 11% over the last twelve months. Unfortunately this falls short of the market return. But at least that's still a gain! Over five years the TSR has been a reduction of 7% per year, over five years. It could well be that the business is stabilizing. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Garrett Motion better, we need to consider many other factors. Even so, be aware that Garrett Motion is showing 4 warning signs in our investment analysis , and 2 of those are concerning...

We will like Garrett Motion better if we see some big insider buys. While we wait, check out this free list of undervalued stocks (mostly small caps) with considerable, recent, insider buying.

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