When you buy shares in a company, it's worth keeping in mind the possibility that it could fail, and you could lose your money. But when you pick a company that is really flourishing, you can make more than 100%. Long term Oceaneering International, Inc. (NYSE:OII) shareholders would be well aware of this, since the stock is up 101% in five years. But it's down 3.9% in the last week. But this could be related to the soft market, with stocks selling off around 0.05% in the last week.

In light of the stock dropping 3.9% in the past week, we want to investigate the longer term story, and see if fundamentals have been the driver of the company's positive five-year return.

Check out our latest analysis for Oceaneering International

There is no denying that markets are sometimes efficient, but prices do not always reflect underlying business performance. 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.

During the last half decade, Oceaneering International became profitable. Sometimes, the start of profitability is a major inflection point that can signal fast earnings growth to come, which in turn justifies very strong share price gains.

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 Oceaneering International has improved its bottom line over the last three years, but what does the future have in store? Take a more thorough look at Oceaneering International's financial health with this free report on its balance sheet.

A Different Perspective

Oceaneering International provided a TSR of 19% over the last twelve months. But that was short of the market average. The silver lining is that the gain was actually better than the average annual return of 15% per year over five year. This suggests the company might be improving over time. If you would like to research Oceaneering International in more detail then you might want to take a look at whether insiders have been buying or selling shares in the company.

But note: Oceaneering International may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies with past earnings growth (and further growth forecast).

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

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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.