Shandong Delisi Food Co., Ltd. (SZSE:002330) shareholders should be happy to see the share price up 14% in the last quarter. But if you look at the last five years the returns have not been good. After all, the share price is down 23% in that time, significantly under-performing the market.

While the last five years has been tough for Shandong Delisi Food shareholders, this past week has shown signs of promise. So let's look at the longer term fundamentals and see if they've been the driver of the negative returns.

Check out our latest analysis for Shandong Delisi Food

To quote Buffett, 'Ships will sail around the world but the Flat Earth Society will flourish. There will continue to be wide discrepancies between price and value in the marketplace...' One imperfect but simple way to consider how the market perception of a company has shifted is to compare the change in the earnings per share (EPS) with the share price movement.

During five years of share price growth, Shandong Delisi Food moved from a loss to profitability. That would generally be considered a positive, so we are surprised to see the share price is down. Other metrics may better explain the share price move.

The modest 0.1% dividend yield is unlikely to be guiding the market view of the stock. In contrast to the share price, revenue has actually increased by 13% 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.

The company's revenue and earnings (over time) are depicted in the image below (click to see the exact numbers).

It's probably worth noting that the CEO is paid less than the median at similar sized companies. It's always worth keeping an eye on CEO pay, but a more important question is whether the company will grow earnings throughout the years. It might be well worthwhile taking a look at our free report on Shandong Delisi Food's earnings, revenue and cash flow.

A Different Perspective

It's good to see that Shandong Delisi Food has rewarded shareholders with a total shareholder return of 17% in the last twelve months. That's including the dividend. That certainly beats the loss of about 4% per year over the last half decade. We generally put more weight on the long term performance over the short term, but the recent improvement could hint at a (positive) inflection point within the business. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Shandong Delisi Food better, we need to consider many other factors. For instance, we've identified 2 warning signs for Shandong Delisi Food (1 makes us a bit uncomfortable) that you should be aware of.

We will like Shandong Delisi Food better if we see some big insider buys. While we wait, check out this free list of growing companies with considerable, recent, insider buying.

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.