As every investor would know, not every swing hits the sweet spot. But you have a problem if you face massive losses more than once in a while. So take a moment to sympathize with the long term shareholders of Bravura Solutions Limited (ASX:BVS), who have seen the share price tank a massive 85% over a three year period. That'd be enough to cause even the strongest minds some disquiet. And over the last year the share price fell 60%, so we doubt many shareholders are delighted. The falls have accelerated recently, with the share price down 25% in the last three months. We really feel for shareholders in this scenario. It's a good reminder of the importance of diversification, and it's worth keeping in mind there's more to life than money, anyway.

It's worthwhile assessing if the company's economics have been moving in lockstep with these underwhelming shareholder returns, or if there is some disparity between the two. So let's do just that.

Check out our latest analysis for Bravura Solutions

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.

During the three years that the share price fell, Bravura Solutions' earnings per share (EPS) dropped by 7.1% each year. This reduction in EPS is slower than the 47% annual reduction in the share price. So it seems the market was too confident about the business, in the past. This increased caution is also evident in the rather low P/E ratio, which is sitting at 7.30.

You can see how EPS has changed over time in the image below (click on the chart to see the exact values).

It's probably worth noting we've seen significant insider buying in the last quarter, which we consider a positive. That said, we think earnings and revenue growth trends are even more important factors to consider. This free interactive report on Bravura Solutions' earnings, revenue and cash flow is a great place to start, if you want to investigate the stock further.

A Different Perspective

Investors in Bravura Solutions had a tough year, with a total loss of 58% (including dividends), against a market gain of about 5.7%. Even the share prices of good stocks drop sometimes, but we want to see improvements in the fundamental metrics of a business, before getting too interested. Unfortunately, last year's performance may indicate unresolved challenges, given that it was worse than the annualised loss of 9% 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. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Bravura Solutions better, we need to consider many other factors. For example, we've discovered 3 warning signs for Bravura Solutions (2 can't be ignored!) that you should be aware of before investing here.