Bertrandt (ETR:BDT) adds €20m to market cap in the past 7 days, though investors from three years ago are still down 62%

Bertrandt Aktiengesellschaft (ETR:BDT) shareholders should be happy to see the share price up 27% in the last month. But that doesn't change the fact that the returns over the last three years have been disappointing. Regrettably, the share price slid 64% in that period. So it's good to see it climbing back up. Perhaps the company has turned over a new leaf.

While the last three years has been tough for Bertrandt shareholders, this past week has shown signs of promise. So let's look at the longer term fundamentals and see if they've been the driver of the negative returns.

Check out our latest analysis for Bertrandt

In his essay The Superinvestors of Graham-and-Doddsville Warren Buffett described how share prices do not always rationally reflect the value of a business. One flawed but reasonable way to assess how sentiment around a company has changed is to compare the earnings per share (EPS) with the share price.

Bertrandt became profitable within the last five years. That would generally be considered a positive, so we are surprised to see the share price is down. So given the share price is down it's worth checking some other metrics too.

Given the healthiness of the dividend payments, we doubt that they've concerned the market. We like that Bertrandt has actually grown its revenue over the last three years. But it's not clear to us why the share price is down. It might be worth diving deeper into the fundamentals, lest an opportunity goes begging.

The company's revenue and earnings (over time) are depicted in the image below (click to see the exact numbers).

We know that Bertrandt has improved its bottom line over the last three years, but what does the future have in store? This free interactive report on Bertrandt's balance sheet strength is a great place to start, if you want to investigate the stock further.

A Different Perspective

Bertrandt shareholders are down 60% for the year (even including dividends), but the market itself is up 12%. 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. Regrettably, last year's performance caps off a bad run, with the shareholders facing a total loss of 10% per year over five years. Generally speaking long term share price weakness can be a bad sign, though contrarian investors might want to research the stock in hope of a turnaround. I find it very interesting to look at share price over the long term as a proxy for business performance. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too. To that end, you should be aware of the 2 warning signs we've spotted with Bertrandt .

But note: Bertrandt 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 German 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.