The main aim of stock picking is to find the market-beating stocks. But in any portfolio, there will be mixed results between individual stocks. At this point some shareholders may be questioning their investment in Guangdong Ellington Electronics Technology Co.,Ltd (SHSE:603328), since the last five years saw the share price fall 28%. Even worse, it's down 9.5% in about a month, which isn't fun at all. But this could be related to poor market conditions -- stocks are down 5.1% in the same time.

Since Guangdong Ellington Electronics TechnologyLtd has shed CN¥449m 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 Guangdong Ellington Electronics TechnologyLtd

There is no denying that markets are sometimes efficient, but prices do not always reflect 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.

During the five years over which the share price declined, Guangdong Ellington Electronics TechnologyLtd's earnings per share (EPS) dropped by 12% each year. The share price decline of 6% per year isn't as bad as the EPS decline. The relatively muted share price reaction might be because the market expects the business to turn around.

The company's earnings per share (over time) is depicted in the image below (click to see the exact numbers).

This free interactive report on Guangdong Ellington Electronics TechnologyLtd's earnings, revenue and cash flow is a great place to start, if you want to investigate the stock further.

What About Dividends?

It is important to consider the total shareholder return, as well as the share price return, for any given stock. Whereas the share price return only reflects the change in the share price, the TSR includes the value of dividends (assuming they were reinvested) and the benefit of any discounted capital raising or spin-off. Arguably, the TSR gives a more comprehensive picture of the return generated by a stock. As it happens, Guangdong Ellington Electronics TechnologyLtd's TSR for the last 5 years was -11%, which exceeds the share price return mentioned earlier. The dividends paid by the company have thusly boosted the total shareholder return.

A Different Perspective

It's good to see that Guangdong Ellington Electronics TechnologyLtd has rewarded shareholders with a total shareholder return of 3.1% in the last twelve months. And that does include the dividend. There's no doubt those recent returns are much better than the TSR loss of 2% per year over five years. We generally put more weight on the long term performance over the short term, but the recent improvement could hint at a (positive) inflection point within the business. While it is well worth considering the different impacts that market conditions can have on the share price, there are other factors that are even more important. Case in point: We've spotted 2 warning signs for Guangdong Ellington Electronics TechnologyLtd you should be aware of, and 1 of them makes us a bit uncomfortable.

If you are like me, then you will not want to miss this free list of growing companies that insiders are buying.

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.