The simplest way to benefit from a rising market is to buy an index fund. Active investors aim to buy stocks that vastly outperform the market - but in the process, they risk under-performance. Investors in Yixin Group Limited (HKG:2858) have tasted that bitter downside in the last year, as the share price dropped 12%. That falls noticeably short of the market return of around 6.8%. Yixin Group may have better days ahead, of course; we've only looked at a one year period. It's down 1.1% in the last seven days.

Check out our latest analysis for Yixin Group

There is no denying that markets are sometimes efficient, but prices do not always reflect underlying business performance. One imperfect but simple way to consider how the market perception of a company has shifted is to compare the change in the earnings per share (EPS) with the share price movement.

During the last year Yixin Group grew its earnings per share, moving from a loss to a profit.

We're surprised that the share price is lower given that improvement. If the company can sustain the earnings growth, this might be an inflection point for the business, which would make right now a really interesting time to study it more closely.

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

We know that Yixin Group has improved its bottom line lately, but is it going to grow revenue? You could check out this free report showing analyst revenue forecasts.

A Different Perspective

Given that the market gained 6.8% in the last year, Yixin Group shareholders might be miffed that they lost 12%. While the aim is to do better than that, it's worth recalling that even great long-term investments sometimes underperform for a year or more. Putting aside the last twelve months, it's good to see the share price has rebounded by 8.7%, in the last ninety days. This could just be a bounce because the selling was too aggressive, but fingers crossed it's the start of a new trend. Before deciding if you like the current share price, check how Yixin Group scores on these 3 valuation metrics.

We will like Yixin Group better if we see some big insider buys. While we wait, check out this free list of growing companies with considerable, recent, insider buying.

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on HK exchanges.

We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.