While shareholders of Monument Mining (CVE:MMY) are in the black over 5 years, those who bought a week ago aren't so fortunate

Monument Mining Limited (CVE:MMY) shareholders might be concerned after seeing the share price drop 15% in the last month. But that does not change the realty that the stock's performance has been terrific, over five years. To be precise, the stock price is 420% higher than it was five years ago, a wonderful performance by any measure. So it might be that some shareholders are taking profits after good performance. But the real question is whether the business fundamentals can improve over the long term.

Although Monument Mining has shed CA$9.9m from its market cap this week, let's take a look at its longer term fundamental trends and see if they've driven returns.

Check out our latest analysis for Monument Mining

There is no denying that markets are sometimes efficient, but prices do not always reflect underlying business performance. 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 the last half decade, Monument Mining became profitable. That kind of transition can be an inflection point that justifies a strong share price gain, just as we have seen here.

You can see below how EPS has changed over time (discover the exact values by clicking on the image).

It is of course excellent to see how Monument Mining has grown profits over the years, but the future is more important for shareholders. It might be well worthwhile taking a look at our free report on how its financial position has changed over time.

A Different Perspective

It's nice to see that Monument Mining shareholders have received a total shareholder return of 73% over the last year. Since the one-year TSR is better than the five-year TSR (the latter coming in at 39% per year), it would seem that the stock's performance has improved in recent times. Someone with an optimistic perspective could view the recent improvement in TSR as indicating that the business itself is getting better with time. 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. Case in point: We've spotted 1 warning sign for Monument Mining you should be aware of.

If you like to buy stocks alongside management, then you might just love this free list of companies. (Hint: many of them are unnoticed AND have attractive valuation).

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