This week we saw the Urban One, Inc. (NASDAQ:UONE.K) share price climb by 12%. But only the myopic could ignore the astounding decline over three years. In that time the share price has melted like a snowball in the desert, down 85%. So it sure is nice to see a bit of an improvement. But the more important question is whether the underlying business can justify a higher price still. 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.

The recent uptick of 12% could be a positive sign of things to come, so let's take a look at historical fundamentals.

Check out our latest analysis for Urban One

While the efficient markets hypothesis continues to be taught by some, it has been proven that markets are over-reactive dynamic systems, and investors are not always rational. 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.

Over the three years that the share price declined, Urban One's earnings per share (EPS) dropped significantly, falling to a loss. Since the company has fallen to a loss making position, it's hard to compare the change in EPS with the share price change. But it's safe to say we'd generally expect the share price to be lower as a result!

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

This free interactive report on Urban One's earnings, revenue and cash flow is a great place to start, if you want to investigate the stock further.

A Different Perspective

Urban One shareholders are down 79% for the year, but the market itself is up 41%. 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. Regrettably, last year's performance caps off a bad run, with the shareholders facing a total loss of 8% 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. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Urban One better, we need to consider many other factors. For instance, we've identified 4 warning signs for Urban One (2 shouldn't be ignored) that you should be aware of.

If you like to buy stocks alongside management, then you might just love this free list of companies. (Hint: many of them are unnoticed AND have attractive valuation).