Jianglong Shipbuilding's (SZSE:300589) earnings growth rate lags the 11% CAGR delivered to shareholders

The Jianglong Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. (SZSE:300589) share price has had a bad week, falling 10%. On the bright side the returns have been quite good over the last half decade. Its return of 66% has certainly bested the market return!

While this past week has detracted from the company's five-year return, let's look at the recent trends of the underlying business and see if the gains have been in alignment.

View our latest analysis for Jianglong Shipbuilding

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, Jianglong Shipbuilding achieved compound earnings per share (EPS) growth of 7.7% per year. This EPS growth is slower than the share price growth of 11% per year, over the same period. This suggests that market participants hold the company in higher regard, these days. That's not necessarily surprising considering the five-year track record of earnings growth. This favorable sentiment is reflected in its (fairly optimistic) P/E ratio of 92.26.

The company's earnings per share (over time) is depicted in the image below (click to see the exact numbers).

We're pleased to report that the CEO is remunerated more modestly than most CEOs at similarly capitalized companies. But while CEO remuneration is always worth checking, the really important question is whether the company can grow earnings going forward. This free interactive report on Jianglong Shipbuilding's earnings, revenue and cash flow is a great place to start, if you want to investigate the stock further.

A Different Perspective

Jianglong Shipbuilding shareholders are down 9.5% for the year (even including dividends), but the market itself is up 6.2%. 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. Longer term investors wouldn't be so upset, since they would have made 11%, each year, over five years. If the fundamental data continues to indicate long term sustainable growth, the current sell-off could be an opportunity worth considering. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Jianglong Shipbuilding better, we need to consider many other factors. For example, we've discovered 1 warning sign for Jianglong Shipbuilding that you should be aware of before investing here.

But note: Jianglong Shipbuilding 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 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.