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Long term investing is the way to go, but that doesn't mean you should hold every stock forever. It hits us in the gut when we see fellow investors suffer a loss. For example, we sympathize with anyone who was caught holding Fresh Express Delivery Holdings Group Co., Limited (HKG:1175) during the five years that saw its share price drop a whopping 85%. And some of the more recent buyers are probably worried, too, with the stock falling 32% in the last year. The good news is that the stock is up 2.1% in the last week.

We really hope anyone holding through that price crash has a diversified portfolio. Even when you lose money, you don't have to lose the lesson.

View our latest analysis for Fresh Express Delivery Holdings Group

To paraphrase Benjamin Graham: Over the short term the market is a voting machine, but over the long term it's a weighing machine. 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.

In the last half decade Fresh Express Delivery Holdings Group saw its share price fall as its EPS declined below zero. Since the company has fallen to a loss making position, it's hard to compare the change in EPS with the share price change. However, we can say we'd expect to see a falling share price in this scenario.

The image below shows how EPS has tracked over time (if you click on the image you can see greater detail).

Before buying or selling a stock, we always recommend a close examination of historic growth trends, available here..

A Different Perspective

We regret to report that Fresh Express Delivery Holdings Group shareholders are down 32% for the year. Unfortunately, that's worse than the broader market decline of 1.3%. However, it could simply be that the share price has been impacted by broader market jitters. It might be worth keeping an eye on the fundamentals, in case there's a good opportunity. Regrettably, last year's performance caps off a bad run, with the shareholders facing a total loss of 32% per year over five years. Generally speaking long term share price weakness can be a bad sign, though contrarian investors might want to research the stock in hope of a turnaround. If you would like to research Fresh Express Delivery Holdings Group in more detail then you might want to take a look at whether insiders have been buying or selling shares in the company.