The main aim of stock picking is to find the market-beating stocks. But even the best stock picker will only win with some selections. So we wouldn't blame long term Eastern & Oriental Berhad (KLSE:E&O) shareholders for doubting their decision to hold, with the stock down 47% over a half decade. Shareholders have had an even rougher run lately, with the share price down 10% in the last 90 days.

Since shareholders are down over the longer term, lets look at the underlying fundamentals over the that time and see if they've been consistent with returns.

View our latest analysis for Eastern & Oriental Berhad

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.

Eastern & Oriental Berhad became profitable within the last five years. Most would consider that to be a good thing, so it's counter-intuitive to see the share price declining. Other metrics may better explain the share price move.

It could be that the revenue decline of 32% per year is viewed as evidence that Eastern & Oriental Berhad is shrinking. That could explain the weak share price.

The graphic below depicts how earnings and revenue have changed over time (unveil the exact values by clicking on the image).

We're pleased to report that the CEO is remunerated more modestly than most CEOs at similarly capitalized companies. It's always worth keeping an eye on CEO pay, but a more important question is whether the company will grow earnings throughout the years. So it makes a lot of sense to check out what analysts think Eastern & Oriental Berhad will earn in the future (free profit forecasts).

What About The Total Shareholder Return (TSR)?

We'd be remiss not to mention the difference between Eastern & Oriental Berhad's total shareholder return (TSR) and its share price return. Arguably the TSR is a more complete return calculation because it accounts for the value of dividends (as if they were reinvested), along with the hypothetical value of any discounted capital that have been offered to shareholders. Eastern & Oriental Berhad's TSR of was a loss of 43% for the 5 years. That wasn't as bad as its share price return, because it has paid dividends.

A Different Perspective

It's good to see that Eastern & Oriental Berhad has rewarded shareholders with a total shareholder return of 40% in the last twelve months. That certainly beats the loss of about 7% per year over the last half decade. 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. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Eastern & Oriental Berhad better, we need to consider many other factors. Like risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 4 warning signs for Eastern & Oriental Berhad (of which 2 are significant!) you should know about.