Investors in CCC (WSE:CCC) have seen stellar returns of 273% over the past year

Unfortunately, investing is risky - companies can and do go bankrupt. On the other hand, if you find a high quality business to buy (at the right price) you can more than double your money! For example, the CCC S.A. (WSE:CCC) share price had more than doubled in just one year - up 273%. Also pleasing for shareholders was the 25% gain in the last three months. Also impressive, the stock is up 30% over three years, making long term shareholders happy, too.

Now it's worth having a look at the company's fundamentals too, because that will help us determine if the long term shareholder return has matched the performance of the underlying business.

Check out our latest analysis for CCC

While markets are a powerful pricing mechanism, share prices reflect investor sentiment, not just underlying business performance. By comparing earnings per share (EPS) and share price changes over time, we can get a feel for how investor attitudes to a company have morphed over time.

CCC went from making a loss to reporting a profit, in the last year.

When a company is just on the edge of profitability it can be well worth considering other metrics in order to more precisely gauge growth (and therefore understand share price movements).

However the year on year revenue growth of 3.6% would help. We do see some companies suppress earnings in order to accelerate revenue growth.

The image below shows how earnings and revenue have tracked over time (if you click on the image you can see greater detail).

It is of course excellent to see how CCC has grown profits over the years, but the future is more important for shareholders. This free interactive report on CCC's balance sheet strength is a great place to start, if you want to investigate the stock further.

A Different Perspective

It's good to see that CCC has rewarded shareholders with a total shareholder return of 273% in the last twelve months. That's better than the annualised return of 2% over half a decade, implying that the company is doing better recently. Given the share price momentum remains strong, it might be worth taking a closer look at the stock, lest you miss an opportunity. 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. Case in point: We've spotted 3 warning signs for CCC you should be aware of, and 1 of them is a bit unpleasant.

Of course CCC may not be the best stock to buy. So you may wish to see this free collection of growth stocks.

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