Generally speaking long term investing is the way to go. But along the way some stocks are going to perform badly. Zooming in on an example, the Shanxi Meijin Energy Co.,Ltd. (SZSE:000723) share price dropped 54% in the last half decade. That's not a lot of fun for true believers. We also note that the stock has performed poorly over the last year, with the share price down 43%. The falls have accelerated recently, with the share price down 30% in the last three months.

After losing 5.4% this past week, it's worth investigating the company's fundamentals to see what we can infer from past performance.

While markets are a powerful pricing mechanism, share prices reflect investor sentiment, not just underlying business performance. One flawed but reasonable way to assess how sentiment around a company has changed is to compare the earnings per share (EPS) with the share price.

In the last half decade Shanxi Meijin EnergyLtd saw its share price fall as its EPS declined below zero. At present it's hard to make valid comparisons between EPS and the share price. However, we can say we'd expect to see a falling share price in this scenario.

The image below shows how EPS has tracked over time (if you click on the image you can see greater detail).

Dive deeper into Shanxi Meijin EnergyLtd's key metrics by checking this interactive graph of Shanxi Meijin EnergyLtd's earnings, revenue and cash flow.

A Different Perspective

While the broader market lost about 19% in the twelve months, Shanxi Meijin EnergyLtd shareholders did even worse, losing 43%. However, it could simply be that the share price has been impacted by broader market jitters. It might be worth keeping an eye on the fundamentals, in case there's a good opportunity. Unfortunately, last year's performance may indicate unresolved challenges, given that it was worse than the annualised loss of 9% over the last half decade. We realise that Baron Rothschild has said investors should "buy when there is blood on the streets", but we caution that investors should first be sure they are buying a high quality business. Shareholders might want to examine this detailed historical graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow.

For those who like to find winning investments this free list of undervalued companies with recent insider purchasing, could be just the ticket.

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.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com