LB Group Co., Ltd. (SZSE:002601) shareholders should be happy to see the share price up 11% in the last quarter. But that doesn't help the fact that the three year return is less impressive. After all, the share price is down 37% in the last three years, significantly under-performing the market.

After losing 4.7% this past week, it's worth investigating the company's fundamentals to see what we can infer from past performance.

There is no denying that markets are sometimes efficient, but prices do not always reflect underlying business performance. 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 three years that the share price fell, LB Group's earnings per share (EPS) dropped by 7.3% each year. The share price decline of 14% is actually steeper than the EPS slippage. So it seems the market was too confident about the business, in the past.

The graphic below depicts how EPS has changed over time (unveil the exact values by clicking on the image).

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

What About Dividends?

When looking at investment returns, it is important to consider the difference between total shareholder return (TSR) and share price return. The TSR incorporates the value of any spin-offs or discounted capital raisings, along with any dividends, based on the assumption that the dividends are reinvested. It's fair to say that the TSR gives a more complete picture for stocks that pay a dividend. We note that for LB Group the TSR over the last 3 years was -26%, which is better than the share price return mentioned above. This is largely a result of its dividend payments!

A Different Perspective

While it's never nice to take a loss, LB Group shareholders can take comfort that , including dividends,their trailing twelve month loss of 2.6% wasn't as bad as the market loss of around 13%. Of course, the long term returns are far more important and the good news is that over five years, the stock has returned 8% for each year. 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 LB Group better, we need to consider many other factors. Like risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 3 warning signs for LB Group (of which 2 are a bit unpleasant!) you should know about.

We will like LB Group better if we see some big insider buys. While we wait, check out this free list of growing companies 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 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.