Overseas Chinese Town (Asia) Holdings (HKG:3366) sheds CN¥142m, company earnings and investor returns have been trending downwards for past five years

Statistically speaking, long term investing is a profitable endeavour. But no-one is immune from buying too high. Zooming in on an example, the Overseas Chinese Town (Asia) Holdings Limited (HKG:3366) share price dropped 68% in the last half decade. We certainly feel for shareholders who bought near the top. And we doubt long term believers are the only worried holders, since the stock price has declined 48% over the last twelve months. The falls have accelerated recently, with the share price down 26% in the last three months. But this could be related to the weak market, which is down 19% in the same period.

Since Overseas Chinese Town (Asia) Holdings has shed CN¥142m from its value in the past 7 days, let's see if the longer term decline has been driven by the business' economics.

Check out our latest analysis for Overseas Chinese Town (Asia) Holdings

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 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.

Overseas Chinese Town (Asia) Holdings 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. Other metrics might give us a better handle on how its value is changing over time.

Arguably, the revenue drop of 35% a year for half a decade suggests that the company can't grow in the long term. That could explain the weak share price.

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

Take a more thorough look at Overseas Chinese Town (Asia) Holdings' financial health with this free report on its balance sheet.

What about the Total Shareholder Return (TSR)?

We'd be remiss not to mention the difference between Overseas Chinese Town (Asia) Holdings' total shareholder return (TSR) and its share price return. The TSR is a return calculation that accounts for the value of cash dividends (assuming that any dividend received was reinvested) and the calculated value of any discounted capital raisings and spin-offs. Its history of dividend payouts mean that Overseas Chinese Town (Asia) Holdings' TSR, which was a 60% drop over the last 5 years, was not as bad as the share price return.

A Different Perspective

We regret to report that Overseas Chinese Town (Asia) Holdings shareholders are down 48% for the year. Unfortunately, that's worse than the broader market decline of 31%. Having said that, it's inevitable that some stocks will be oversold in a falling market. The key is to keep your eyes on the fundamental developments. Unfortunately, last year's performance may indicate unresolved challenges, given that it was worse than the annualised loss of 10% over the last half decade. 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. 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. Like risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 4 warning signs for Overseas Chinese Town (Asia) Holdings (of which 1 makes us a bit uncomfortable!) you should know about.

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of companies we expect will grow earnings.

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