Guangdong Zhongnan Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. (SZSE:000717) shareholders will doubtless be very grateful to see the share price up 60% 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 32% in the last three years, significantly under-performing the market.

After losing 8.3% this past week, it's worth investigating the company's fundamentals to see what we can infer from past performance.

Given that Guangdong Zhongnan Iron and Steel didn't make a profit in the last twelve months, we'll focus on revenue growth to form a quick view of its business development. When a company doesn't make profits, we'd generally hope to see good revenue growth. That's because fast revenue growth can be easily extrapolated to forecast profits, often of considerable size.

In the last three years Guangdong Zhongnan Iron and Steel saw its revenue shrink by 7.7% per year. That is not a good result. The annual decline of 10% per year in that period has clearly disappointed holders. That makes sense given the lack of either profits or revenue growth. Of course, sentiment could become too negative, and the company may actually be making progress to profitability.

The image below shows how earnings and revenue have tracked over time (if you click on the image you can see greater detail).

You can see how its balance sheet has strengthened (or weakened) over time in this free interactive graphic.

What About The Total Shareholder Return (TSR)?

Investors should note that there's a difference between Guangdong Zhongnan Iron and Steel's total shareholder return (TSR) and its share price change, which we've covered above. The TSR attempts to capture the value of dividends (as if they were reinvested) as well as any spin-offs or discounted capital raisings offered to shareholders. Its history of dividend payouts mean that Guangdong Zhongnan Iron and Steel's TSR, which was a 27% drop over the last 3 years, was not as bad as the share price return.

A Different Perspective

Investors in Guangdong Zhongnan Iron and Steel had a tough year, with a total loss of 2.8%, against a market gain of about 5.2%. However, keep in mind that even the best stocks will sometimes underperform the market over a twelve month period. Unfortunately, last year's performance may indicate unresolved challenges, given that it was worse than the annualised loss of 1.5% over the last half decade. We realise that Baron Rothschild has said investors should "buy when there is blood on the streets", but we caution that investors should first be sure they are buying a high quality business. 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. Case in point: We've spotted 2 warning signs for Guangdong Zhongnan Iron and Steel you should be aware of, and 1 of them doesn't sit too well with us.

For those who like to find winning investments this free list of undervalued companies with recent insider purchasing, could be just the ticket.

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.