In order to justify the effort of selecting individual stocks, it's worth striving to beat the returns from a market index fund. But in any portfolio, there are likely to be some stocks that fall short of that benchmark. We regret to report that long term ZhongAn Online P & C Insurance Co., Ltd. (HKG:6060) shareholders have had that experience, with the share price dropping 42% in three years, versus a market decline of about 9.8%.

It's worthwhile assessing if the company's economics have been moving in lockstep with these underwhelming shareholder returns, or if there is some disparity between the two. So let's do just that.

See our latest analysis for ZhongAn Online P & C Insurance

ZhongAn Online P & C Insurance isn't currently profitable, so most analysts would look to revenue growth to get an idea of how fast the underlying business is growing. When a company doesn't make profits, we'd generally expect to see good revenue growth. As you can imagine, fast revenue growth, when maintained, often leads to fast profit growth.

In the last three years, ZhongAn Online P & C Insurance saw its revenue grow by 7.2% per year, compound. Given it's losing money in pursuit of growth, we are not really impressed with that. Indeed, the stock dropped 12% over the last three years. Shareholders will probably be hoping growth picks up soon. But ultimately the key will be whether the company can become profitability.

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

ZhongAn Online P & C Insurance is well known by investors, and plenty of clever analysts have tried to predict the future profit levels. So we recommend checking out this free report showing consensus forecasts

A Different Perspective

It's good to see that ZhongAn Online P & C Insurance has rewarded shareholders with a total shareholder return of 34% in the last twelve months. There's no doubt those recent returns are much better than the TSR loss of 3% per year over five years. The long term loss makes us cautious, but the short term TSR gain certainly hints at a brighter future. Shareholders might want to examine this detailed historical graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow.

If you are like me, then you will not want to miss this free list of growing companies that insiders are buying.

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on Hong Kong 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.