The most you can lose on any stock (assuming you don't use leverage) is 100% of your money. But when you pick a company that is really flourishing, you can make more than 100%. For example, the Chart Industries, Inc. (NYSE:GTLS) share price has soared 217% in the last half decade. Most would be very happy with that. And in the last month, the share price has gained 44%. This could be related to the recent financial results that were recently released - you could check the most recent data by reading our company report.

The past week has proven to be lucrative for Chart Industries investors, so let's see if fundamentals drove the company's five-year performance.

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

During the last half decade, Chart Industries became profitable. Sometimes, the start of profitability is a major inflection point that can signal fast earnings growth to come, which in turn justifies very strong share price gains.

The company's earnings per share (over time) is depicted in the image below (click to see the exact numbers).

It's good to see that there was some significant insider buying in the last three months. That's a positive. That said, we think earnings and revenue growth trends are even more important factors to consider. This free interactive report on Chart Industries' earnings, revenue and cash flow is a great place to start, if you want to investigate the stock further.

A Different Perspective

Chart Industries provided a TSR of 33% over the year. That's fairly close to the broader market return. That gain looks pretty satisfying, and it is even better than the five-year TSR of 26% per year. Even if the share price growth slows down from here, there's a good chance that this is business worth watching in the long term. While it is well worth considering the different impacts that market conditions can have on the share price, there are other factors that are even more important. Even so, be aware that Chart Industries is showing 1 warning sign in our investment analysis , you should know about...

Chart Industries is not the only stock that insiders are buying. For those who like to find lesser know companies this free list of growing 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 American 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.