For many, the main point of investing is to generate higher returns than the overall market. But even the best stock picker will only win with some selections. At this point some shareholders may be questioning their investment in Sichuan Tianyi Comheart Telecom Co., Ltd. (SZSE:300504), since the last five years saw the share price fall 43%. And some of the more recent buyers are probably worried, too, with the stock falling 25% in the last year. Unfortunately the share price momentum is still quite negative, with prices down 28% in thirty days.

With the stock having lost 12% in the past week, it's worth taking a look at business performance and seeing if there's any red flags.

View our latest analysis for Sichuan Tianyi Comheart Telecom

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.

Looking back five years, both Sichuan Tianyi Comheart Telecom's share price and EPS declined; the latter at a rate of 13% per year. This fall in the EPS is worse than the 11% compound annual share price fall. So the market may previously have expected a drop, or else it expects the situation will improve.

You can see below how EPS has changed over time (discover the exact values by clicking on the image).

This free interactive report on Sichuan Tianyi Comheart Telecom's earnings, revenue and cash flow is a great place to start, if you want to investigate the stock further.

What About Dividends?

When looking at investment returns, it is important to consider the difference between total shareholder return (TSR) and share price return. Whereas the share price return only reflects the change in the share price, the TSR includes the value of dividends (assuming they were reinvested) and the benefit of any discounted capital raising or spin-off. So for companies that pay a generous dividend, the TSR is often a lot higher than the share price return. As it happens, Sichuan Tianyi Comheart Telecom's TSR for the last 5 years was -40%, which exceeds the share price return mentioned earlier. The dividends paid by the company have thusly boosted the total shareholder return.

A Different Perspective

While the broader market lost about 21% in the twelve months, Sichuan Tianyi Comheart Telecom shareholders did even worse, losing 24% (even including dividends). 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 7% over the last half decade. Generally speaking long term share price weakness can be a bad sign, though contrarian investors might want to research the stock in hope of a turnaround. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Sichuan Tianyi Comheart Telecom better, we need to consider many other factors. Even so, be aware that Sichuan Tianyi Comheart Telecom is showing 2 warning signs in our investment analysis , you should know about...

If you would prefer to check out another company -- one with potentially superior financials -- then do not miss this free list of companies that have proven they can grow earnings.

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.