Ideally, your overall portfolio should beat the market average. But the main game is to find enough winners to more than offset the losers At this point some shareholders may be questioning their investment in Jiangsu Zhangjiagang Rural Commercial Bank Co., Ltd (SZSE:002839), since the last five years saw the share price fall 37%.

After losing 4.5% this past week, it's worth investigating the company's fundamentals to see what we can infer from past performance.

Check out our latest analysis for Jiangsu Zhangjiagang Rural Commercial Bank

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 unfortunate half decade during which the share price slipped, Jiangsu Zhangjiagang Rural Commercial Bank actually saw its earnings per share (EPS) improve by 15% per year. So it doesn't seem like EPS is a great guide to understanding how the market is valuing the stock. Alternatively, growth expectations may have been unreasonable in the past.

Due to the lack of correlation between the EPS growth and the falling share price, it's worth taking a look at other metrics to try to understand the share price movement.

In contrast to the share price, revenue has actually increased by 12% a year in the five year period. A more detailed examination of the revenue and earnings may or may not explain why the share price languishes; there could be an opportunity.

You can see below how earnings and revenue have changed over time (discover the exact values by clicking on the image).

We know that Jiangsu Zhangjiagang Rural Commercial Bank has improved its bottom line lately, but what does the future have in store? This free report showing analyst forecasts should help you form a view on Jiangsu Zhangjiagang Rural Commercial Bank

What About Dividends?

It is important to consider the total shareholder return, as well as the share price return, for any given stock. The TSR is a return calculation that accounts for the value of cash dividends (assuming that any dividend received was reinvested) and the calculated value of any discounted capital raisings and spin-offs. So for companies that pay a generous dividend, the TSR is often a lot higher than the share price return. As it happens, Jiangsu Zhangjiagang Rural Commercial Bank's TSR for the last 5 years was -29%, which exceeds the share price return mentioned earlier. This is largely a result of its dividend payments!

A Different Perspective

While the broader market lost about 1.4% in the twelve months, Jiangsu Zhangjiagang Rural Commercial Bank shareholders did even worse, losing 8.0% (even including dividends). Having said that, it's inevitable that some stocks will be oversold in a falling market. The key is to keep your eyes on the fundamental developments. Regrettably, last year's performance caps off a bad run, with the shareholders facing a total loss of 5% per year over five years. 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. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Jiangsu Zhangjiagang Rural Commercial Bank better, we need to consider many other factors. Take risks, for example - Jiangsu Zhangjiagang Rural Commercial Bank has 1 warning sign we think you should be aware of.

But note: Jiangsu Zhangjiagang Rural Commercial Bank 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 CN 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.