It's easy to match the overall market return by buying an index fund. But if you buy individual stocks, you can do both better or worse than that. For example, the Jiangsu Libert INC. (SHSE:605167) share price is down 15% in the last year. That contrasts poorly with the market decline of 10%. We wouldn't rush to judgement on Jiangsu Libert because we don't have a long term history to look at. The last week also saw the share price slip down another 9.3%.

Since Jiangsu Libert has shed CN¥346m from its value in the past 7 days, let's see if the longer term decline has been driven by the business' economics.

View our latest analysis for Jiangsu Libert

There is no denying that markets are sometimes efficient, but prices do not always reflect underlying business performance. 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.

Unhappily, Jiangsu Libert had to report a 14% decline in EPS over the last year. This change in EPS is remarkably close to the 15% decrease in the share price. So it seems that the market sentiment has not changed much, despite the weak results. Rather, the share price is remains a similar multiple of the EPS, suggesting the outlook remains the same.

The image below shows how EPS has tracked over time (if you click on the image you can see greater detail).

Dive deeper into Jiangsu Libert's key metrics by checking this interactive graph of Jiangsu Libert's earnings, revenue and cash flow.

A Different Perspective

Jiangsu Libert shareholders are down 14% for the year (even including dividends), even worse than the market loss of 10%. That's disappointing, but it's worth keeping in mind that the market-wide selling wouldn't have helped. It's great to see a nice little 4.3% rebound in the last three months. This could just be a bounce because the selling was too aggressive, but fingers crossed it's the start of a new trend. 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. To that end, you should learn about the 2 warning signs we've spotted with Jiangsu Libert (including 1 which makes us a bit uncomfortable) .

For those who like to find winning investments 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 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.