Yantai Shuangta Food Co., Ltd. (SZSE:002481) shareholders should be happy to see the share price up 23% in the last quarter. Meanwhile over the last three years the stock has dropped hard. Regrettably, the share price slid 57% in that period. So it's good to see it climbing back up. The rise has some hopeful, but turnarounds are often precarious.

While the stock has risen 18% in the past week but long term shareholders are still in the red, let's see what the fundamentals can tell us.

To paraphrase Benjamin Graham: Over the short term the market is a voting machine, but over the long term it's a weighing machine. 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.

Yantai Shuangta Food became profitable within the last five years. That would generally be considered a positive, so we are surprised to see the share price is down. So it's worth looking at other metrics to try to understand the share price move.

The modest 0.8% dividend yield is unlikely to be guiding the market view of the stock. We note that, in three years, revenue has actually grown at a 4.3% annual rate, so that doesn't seem to be a reason to sell shares. This analysis is just perfunctory, but it might be worth researching Yantai Shuangta Food more closely, as sometimes stocks fall unfairly. This could present 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).

It's probably worth noting that the CEO is paid less than the median at similar sized companies. It's always worth keeping an eye on CEO pay, but a more important question is whether the company will grow earnings throughout the years. This free interactive report on Yantai Shuangta Food's earnings, revenue and cash flow is a great place to start, if you want to investigate the stock further.

A Different Perspective

We're pleased to report that Yantai Shuangta Food shareholders have received a total shareholder return of 14% over one year. Of course, that includes the dividend. That certainly beats the loss of about 7% per year over the last half decade. We generally put more weight on the long term performance over the short term, but the recent improvement could hint at a (positive) inflection point within the business. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Yantai Shuangta Food better, we need to consider many other factors. Even so, be aware that Yantai Shuangta Food is showing 3 warning signs in our investment analysis , and 1 of those shouldn't be ignored...

We will like Yantai Shuangta Food better if we see some big insider buys. While we wait, check out this free list of undervalued stocks (mostly small caps) 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.