Strong week for Nanjing Putian Telecommunications (SZSE:200468) shareholders doesn't alleviate pain of three-year loss

Nanjing Putian Telecommunications Co., Ltd. (SZSE:200468) shareholders will doubtless be very grateful to see the share price up 52% in the last quarter. But that doesn't help the fact that the three year return is less impressive. Truth be told the share price declined 32% in three years and that return, Dear Reader, falls short of what you could have got from passive investing with an index fund.

Although the past week has been more reassuring for shareholders, they're still in the red over the last three years, so let's see if the underlying business has been responsible for the decline.

See our latest analysis for Nanjing Putian Telecommunications

Nanjing Putian Telecommunications isn't currently profitable, so most analysts would look to revenue growth to get an idea of how fast the underlying business is growing. When a company doesn't make profits, we'd generally hope to see good revenue growth. That's because fast revenue growth can be easily extrapolated to forecast profits, often of considerable size.

Over the last three years, Nanjing Putian Telecommunications' revenue dropped 9.6% per year. That's not what investors generally want to see. The stock has disappointed holders over the last three years, falling 10%, annualized. That makes sense given the lack of either profits or revenue growth. However, in this kind of situation you can sometimes find opportunity, where sentiment is negative but the company is actually making good progress.

The graphic below depicts how earnings and revenue have changed over time (unveil the exact values by clicking on the image).

Balance sheet strength is crucial. It might be well worthwhile taking a look at our free report on how its financial position has changed over time.

A Different Perspective

Nanjing Putian Telecommunications shareholders are down 14% for the year, but the market itself is up 3.3%. However, keep in mind that even the best stocks will sometimes underperform the market over a twelve month period. Regrettably, last year's performance caps off a bad run, with the shareholders facing a total loss of 0.9% per year over five years. We realise that Baron Rothschild has said investors should "buy when there is blood on the streets", but we caution that investors should first be sure they are buying a high quality business. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Nanjing Putian Telecommunications better, we need to consider many other factors. For instance, we've identified 2 warning signs for Nanjing Putian Telecommunications (1 is significant) that 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 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.