Generally speaking long term investing is the way to go. But unfortunately, some companies simply don't succeed. For example the Jilin Jiutai Rural Commercial Bank Corporation Limited (HKG:6122) share price dropped 62% over five years. That's not a lot of fun for true believers. And we doubt long term believers are the only worried holders, since the stock price has declined 56% over the last twelve months. On top of that, the share price is down 15% in the last week.

With the stock having lost 15% in the past week, it's worth taking a look at business performance and seeing if there's any red flags.

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 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 Jilin Jiutai Rural Commercial Bank 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).

Before buying or selling a stock, we always recommend a close examination of historic growth trends, available here.

What About The Total Shareholder Return (TSR)?

We've already covered Jilin Jiutai Rural Commercial Bank's share price action, but we should also mention its total shareholder return (TSR). The TSR attempts to capture the value of dividends (as if they were reinvested) as well as any spin-offs or discounted capital raisings offered to shareholders. Its history of dividend payouts mean that Jilin Jiutai Rural Commercial Bank's TSR, which was a 56% drop over the last 5 years, was not as bad as the share price return.

A Different Perspective

While the broader market gained around 6.8% in the last year, Jilin Jiutai Rural Commercial Bank shareholders lost 56%. However, keep in mind that even the best stocks will sometimes underperform the market over a twelve month period. 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. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Jilin Jiutai Rural Commercial Bank better, we need to consider many other factors. For example, we've discovered 1 warning sign for Jilin Jiutai Rural Commercial Bank that you should be aware of before investing here.

Of course Jilin Jiutai Rural Commercial Bank may not be the best stock to buy. So you may wish to see this free collection of growth stocks.

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