By buying an index fund, you can roughly match the market return with ease. But if you pick the right individual stocks, you could make more than that. Just take a look at Xinjiang Winka Times Department Store Co.,Ltd. (SHSE:603101), which is up 65%, over three years, soundly beating the market decline of 25% (not including dividends). On the other hand, the returns haven't been quite so good recently, with shareholders up just 36%.

After a strong gain in the past week, it's worth seeing if longer term returns have been driven by improving fundamentals.

View our latest analysis for Xinjiang Winka Times Department StoreLtd

Xinjiang Winka Times Department StoreLtd wasn't profitable in the last twelve months, it is unlikely we'll see a strong correlation between its share price and its earnings per share (EPS). Arguably revenue is our next best option. When a company doesn't make profits, we'd generally expect to see good revenue growth. That's because fast revenue growth can be easily extrapolated to forecast profits, often of considerable size.

In the last 3 years Xinjiang Winka Times Department StoreLtd saw its revenue shrink by 6.5% per year. Despite the lack of revenue growth, the stock has returned 18%, compound, over three years. If the company is cutting costs profitability could be on the horizon, but the revenue decline is a prima facie concern.

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

It's probably worth noting that the CEO is paid less than the median at similar sized companies. But while CEO remuneration is always worth checking, the really important question is whether the company can grow earnings going forward. Dive deeper into the earnings by checking this interactive graph of Xinjiang Winka Times Department StoreLtd's earnings, revenue and cash flow.

A Different Perspective

We're pleased to report that Xinjiang Winka Times Department StoreLtd shareholders have received a total shareholder return of 36% over one year. Notably the five-year annualised TSR loss of 0.9% per year compares very unfavourably with the recent share price performance. This makes us a little wary, but the business might have turned around its fortunes. 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. For example, we've discovered 3 warning signs for Xinjiang Winka Times Department StoreLtd (1 is a bit unpleasant!) that you should be aware of before investing here.

But note: Xinjiang Winka Times Department StoreLtd 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.