Statistically speaking, long term investing is a profitable endeavour. But along the way some stocks are going to perform badly. For example the Shenzhen Worldunion Group Incorporated (SZSE:002285) share price dropped 68% over five years. We certainly feel for shareholders who bought near the top. The falls have accelerated recently, with the share price down 14% in the last three months. We note that the company has reported results fairly recently; and the market is hardly delighted. You can check out the latest numbers in our company report.
Since Shenzhen Worldunion Group has shed CN¥399m from its value in the past 7 days, let's see if the longer term decline has been driven by the business' economics.
See our latest analysis for Shenzhen Worldunion Group
Shenzhen Worldunion Group isn't currently profitable, so most analysts would look to revenue growth to get an idea of how fast the underlying business is growing. Shareholders of unprofitable companies usually expect strong revenue growth. That's because it's hard to be confident a company will be sustainable if revenue growth is negligible, and it never makes a profit.
In the last five years Shenzhen Worldunion Group saw its revenue shrink by 10% per year. That puts it in an unattractive cohort, to put it mildly. It seems appropriate, then, that the share price slid about 11% annually during that time. We don't generally like to own companies that lose money and don't grow revenues. You might be better off spending your money on a leisure activity. This looks like a really risky stock to buy, at a glance.
The company's revenue and earnings (over time) are depicted in the image below (click to see the exact numbers).
You can see how its balance sheet has strengthened (or weakened) over time in this free interactive graphic.
A Different Perspective
While the broader market gained around 7.4% in the last year, Shenzhen Worldunion Group shareholders lost 15%. Even the share prices of good stocks drop sometimes, but we want to see improvements in the fundamental metrics of a business, before getting too interested. However, the loss over the last year isn't as bad as the 11% per annum loss investors have suffered over the last half decade. We would want clear information suggesting the company will grow, before taking the view that the share price will stabilize. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Shenzhen Worldunion Group better, we need to consider many other factors. Even so, be aware that Shenzhen Worldunion Group is showing 1 warning sign in our investment analysis , you should know about...
If you would prefer to check out another company -- one with potentially superior financials -- then do not miss this free list of companies that have proven they can grow earnings.
Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on Chinese 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.