Markor International Home Furnishings Co., Ltd. (SHSE:600337) shareholders will doubtless be very grateful to see the share price up 108% in the last quarter. But over the last half decade, the stock has not performed well. In fact, the share price is down 39%, which falls well short of the return you could get by buying an index fund.

On a more encouraging note the company has added CN¥632m to its market cap in just the last 7 days, so let's see if we can determine what's driven the five-year loss for shareholders.

Given that Markor International Home Furnishings 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. Generally speaking, companies without profits are expected to grow revenue every year, and at a good clip. That's because it's hard to be confident a company will be sustainable if revenue growth is negligible, and it never makes a profit.

Over half a decade Markor International Home Furnishings reduced its trailing twelve month revenue by 6.3% for each year. While far from catastrophic that is not good. The share price decline at a rate of 7% per year is disappointing. But it doesn't surprise given the falling revenue. Without profits, its hard to see how shareholders win if the revenue keeps falling.

The graphic below depicts how earnings and revenue have changed over time (unveil the exact values by clicking on the image).

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

A Different Perspective

Markor International Home Furnishings shareholders gained a total return of 1.9% during the year. Unfortunately this falls short of the market return. But at least that's still a gain! Over five years the TSR has been a reduction of 7% per year, over five years. So this might be a sign the business has turned its fortunes around. 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. Even so, be aware that Markor International Home Furnishings is showing 2 warning signs in our investment analysis , you should know about...

But note: Markor International Home Furnishings may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies with past earnings growth (and further growth forecast).

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.