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. Unfortunately the Zhongjin Irradiation Incorporated Company (SZSE:300962) share price slid 30% over twelve months. That's disappointing when you consider the market declined 16%. Zhongjin Irradiation hasn't been listed for long, so although we're wary of recent listings that perform poorly, it may still prove itself with time. And the share price decline continued over the last week, dropping some 8.9%. But this could be related to the soft market, which is down about 5.4% in the same period.

Since Zhongjin Irradiation has shed CN¥370m 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 Zhongjin Irradiation

While the efficient markets hypothesis continues to be taught by some, it has been proven that markets are over-reactive dynamic systems, and investors are not always rational. One way to examine how market sentiment has changed over time is to look at the interaction between a company's share price and its earnings per share (EPS).

Unfortunately Zhongjin Irradiation reported an EPS drop of 15% for the last year. This reduction in EPS is not as bad as the 30% share price fall. Unsurprisingly, given the lack of EPS growth, the market seems to be more cautious about the stock.

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

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

A Different Perspective

Zhongjin Irradiation shareholders are down 30% for the year (even including dividends), even worse than the market loss of 16%. That's disappointing, but it's worth keeping in mind that the market-wide selling wouldn't have helped. The share price decline has continued throughout the most recent three months, down 4.1%, suggesting an absence of enthusiasm from investors. Given the relatively short history of this stock, we'd remain pretty wary until we see some strong business performance. 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 Zhongjin Irradiation is showing 1 warning sign in our investment analysis , you should know about...

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of companies we expect will grow earnings.

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.