By buying an index fund, you can roughly match the market return with ease. But if you choose individual stocks with prowess, you can make superior returns. For example, the Pacific Basin Shipping Limited (HKG:2343) share price is up 78% in the last three years, clearly besting than the market return of around 3.9% (not including dividends).

Check out our latest analysis for Pacific Basin Shipping

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.

Pacific Basin Shipping became profitable within the last three years. So we would expect a higher share price over the period.

The graphic below depicts how EPS has changed over time (unveil the exact values by clicking on the image).

We know that Pacific Basin Shipping has improved its bottom line over the last three years, but what does the future have in store? This free interactive report on Pacific Basin Shipping's balance sheet strength is a great place to start, if you want to investigate the stock further.

What about the Total Shareholder Return (TSR)?

We'd be remiss not to mention the difference between Pacific Basin Shipping's total shareholder return (TSR) and its share price return. The TSR is a return calculation that accounts for the value of cash dividends (assuming that any dividend received was reinvested) and the calculated value of any discounted capital raisings and spin-offs. Its history of dividend payouts mean that Pacific Basin Shipping's TSR of 84% over the last 3 years is better than the share price return.

A Different Perspective

While the broader market lost about 7.2% in the twelve months, Pacific Basin Shipping shareholders did even worse, losing 17%. 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 14% 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. Most investors take the time to check the data on insider transactions. You can click here to see if insiders have been buying or selling.