One simple way to benefit from the stock market is to buy an index fund. But if you buy good businesses at attractive prices, your portfolio returns could exceed the average market return. For example, the Oceaneering International, Inc. (NYSE:OII) share price is up 67% in the last three years, clearly besting the market return of around 14% (not including dividends). On the other hand, the returns haven't been quite so good recently, with shareholders up just 39%.

In light of the stock dropping 3.5% in the past week, we want to investigate the longer term story, and see if fundamentals have been the driver of the company's positive three-year return.

To paraphrase Benjamin Graham: Over the short term the market is a voting machine, but over the long term it's a weighing machine. 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).

Oceaneering International became profitable within the last three years. That would generally be considered a positive, so we'd expect the share price to be up.

The graphic below depicts how EPS has changed over time (unveil the exact values by clicking on the image).

It is of course excellent to see how Oceaneering International has grown profits over the years, but the future is more important for shareholders. Take a more thorough look at Oceaneering International's financial health with this free report on its balance sheet.

A Different Perspective

We're pleased to report that Oceaneering International shareholders have received a total shareholder return of 39% over one year. That gain is better than the annual TSR over five years, which is 6%. Therefore it seems like sentiment around the company has been positive lately. Someone with an optimistic perspective could view the recent improvement in TSR as indicating that the business itself is getting better with time. Most investors take the time to check the data on insider transactions. You can click here to see if insiders have been buying or selling.

But note: Oceaneering International may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies with past earnings growth (and further growth forecast).

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