The most you can lose on any stock (assuming you don't use leverage) is 100% of your money. But when you pick a company that is really flourishing, you can make more than 100%. To wit, the SSY Group Limited (HKG:2005) share price has flown 176% in the last three years. That sort of return is as solid as granite. In contrast, the stock has fallen 9.4% in the last 30 days. We note that the broader market is down 0.8% in the last month, and this may have impacted SSY Group's share price.

See our latest analysis for SSY 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. One way to examine how market sentiment has changed over time is to look at the interaction between a company's share price and its earnings per share (EPS).

During three years of share price growth, SSY Group achieved compound earnings per share growth of 38% per year. We don't think it is entirely coincidental that the EPS growth is reasonably close to the 40% average annual increase in the share price. That suggests that the market sentiment around the company hasn't changed much over that time. Au contraire, the share price change has arguably mimicked the EPS growth.

You can see below how EPS has changed over time (discover the exact values by clicking on the image).

We know that SSY Group has improved its bottom line over the last three years, but what does the future have in store? You can see how its balance sheet has strengthened (or weakened) over time in this free interactive graphic.

What About Dividends?

When looking at investment returns, it is important to consider the difference between total shareholder return (TSR) and 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. Arguably, the TSR gives a more comprehensive picture of the return generated by a stock. As it happens, SSY Group's TSR for the last 3 years was 188%, which exceeds the share price return mentioned earlier. The dividends paid by the company have thusly boosted the total shareholder return.

A Different Perspective

While the broader market lost about 2.2% in the twelve months, SSY Group shareholders did even worse, losing 2.6% (even including dividends) . 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. Longer term investors wouldn't be so upset, since they would have made 18%, each year, over five years. It could be that the recent sell-off is an opportunity, so it may be worth checking the fundamental data for signs of a long term growth trend. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand SSY Group better, we need to consider many other factors. For instance, we've identified 2 warning signs for SSY Group (1 can't be ignored) that you should be aware of.