By buying an index fund, you can roughly match the market return with ease. But if you buy good businesses at attractive prices, your portfolio returns could exceed the average market return. Just take a look at Sichuan Xichang Electric Power Co.,Ltd. (SHSE:600505), which is up 13%, over three years, soundly beating the market decline of 18% (not including dividends).

After a strong gain in the past week, it's worth seeing if longer term returns have been driven by improving fundamentals.

In his essay The Superinvestors of Graham-and-Doddsville Warren Buffett described how share prices do not always rationally reflect the value of a business. By comparing earnings per share (EPS) and share price changes over time, we can get a feel for how investor attitudes to a company have morphed over time.

During the three years of share price growth, Sichuan Xichang Electric PowerLtd actually saw its earnings per share (EPS) drop 43% per year.

Earnings per share have melted like a stack of ice cubes, in stark contrast to the share price. So we'll need to take a look at some different metrics to try to understand why the share price remains solid.

The modest 0.5% dividend yield is unlikely to be propping up the share price. It could be that the revenue growth of 14% per year is viewed as evidence that Sichuan Xichang Electric PowerLtd is growing. In that case, the company may be sacrificing current earnings per share to drive growth, and maybe shareholder's faith in better days ahead will be rewarded.

You can see below how earnings and revenue have changed over time (discover the exact values by clicking on the image).

Balance sheet strength is crucial. It might be well worthwhile taking a look at our free report on how its financial position has changed over time.

A Different Perspective

Although it hurts that Sichuan Xichang Electric PowerLtd returned a loss of 13% in the last twelve months, the broader market was actually worse, returning a loss of 15%. Longer term investors wouldn't be so upset, since they would have made 2%, each year, over five years. It could be that the business is just facing some short term problems, but shareholders should keep a close eye on the fundamentals. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Sichuan Xichang Electric PowerLtd better, we need to consider many other factors. Even so, be aware that Sichuan Xichang Electric PowerLtd is showing 2 warning signs in our investment analysis , you should know about...

But note: Sichuan Xichang Electric PowerLtd may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies with past earnings growth (and further growth forecast).

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.