The most you can lose on any stock (assuming you don't use leverage) is 100% of your money. But in contrast you can make much more than 100% if the company does well. For example, the Oceaneering International, Inc. (NYSE:OII) share price has soared 137% in the last three years. Most would be happy with that. But it's down 4.0% in the last week. But this could be related to the soft market, with stocks selling off around 0.9% in the last week.

Since the long term performance has been good but there's been a recent pullback of 4.0%, let's check if the fundamentals match the share price.

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.

Oceaneering International became profitable within the last three years. Given the importance of this milestone, it's not overly surprising that the share price has increased strongly.

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

We know that Oceaneering International has improved its bottom line over the last three years, but what does the future have in store? It might be well worthwhile taking a look at our free report on how its financial position has changed over time.

A Different Perspective

Oceaneering International shareholders are up 25% for the year. But that return falls short of the market. The silver lining is that the gain was actually better than the average annual return of 11% per year over five year. This suggests the company might be improving over time. If you would like to research Oceaneering International in more detail then you might want to take a look at whether insiders have been buying or selling shares in the company.

We will like Oceaneering International better if we see some big insider buys. While we wait, check out this free list of undervalued stocks (mostly small caps) with considerable, recent, insider buying.

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