No-one enjoys it when they lose money on a stock. But when the market is down, you're bound to have some losers. The Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics Co., Ltd. (SZSE:300760) is down 28% over three years, but the total shareholder return is -25% once you include the dividend. That's better than the market which declined 31% over the last three years. The falls have accelerated recently, with the share price down 21% in the last three months. Of course, this share price action may well have been influenced by the 12% decline in the broader market, throughout the period.

After losing 6.1% this past week, it's worth investigating the company's fundamentals to see what we can infer from past performance.

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 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 unfortunate three years of share price decline, Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics actually saw its earnings per share (EPS) improve by 20% per year. Given the share price reaction, one might suspect that EPS is not a good guide to the business performance during the period (perhaps due to a one-off loss or gain). Alternatively, growth expectations may have been unreasonable in the past.

Since the change in EPS doesn't seem to correlate with the change in share price, it's worth taking a look at other metrics.

We note that, in three years, revenue has actually grown at a 17% annual rate, so that doesn't seem to be a reason to sell shares. It's probably worth investigating Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics further; while we may be missing something on this analysis, there might also be an opportunity.

You can see how earnings and revenue have changed over time in the image below (click on the chart to see the exact values).

Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics is a well known stock, with plenty of analyst coverage, suggesting some visibility into future growth. You can see what analysts are predicting for Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics in this interactive graph of future profit estimates.

What About Dividends?

As well as measuring the share price return, investors should also consider the total shareholder return (TSR). 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. Arguably, the TSR gives a more comprehensive picture of the return generated by a stock. As it happens, Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics' TSR for the last 3 years was -25%, which exceeds the share price return mentioned earlier. This is largely a result of its dividend payments!

A Different Perspective

Although it hurts that Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics returned a loss of 11% in the last twelve months, the broader market was actually worse, returning a loss of 16%. Longer term investors wouldn't be so upset, since they would have made 6%, each year, over five years. In the best case scenario the last year is just a temporary blip on the journey to a brighter future. I find it very interesting to look at share price over the long term as a proxy for business performance. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too. Consider risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 1 warning sign for Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics you should know about.

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of companies we expect will 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.