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%. For example, the SciDev Limited (ASX:SDV) share price had more than doubled in just one year - up 155%. In more good news, the share price has risen 19% in thirty days. The longer term returns have not been as good, with the stock price only 13% higher than it was three years ago.

With that in mind, it's worth seeing if the company's underlying fundamentals have been the driver of long term performance, or if there are some discrepancies.

View our latest analysis for SciDev

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.

SciDev went from making a loss to reporting a profit, in the last year.

When a company is just on the edge of profitability it can be well worth considering other metrics in order to more precisely gauge growth (and therefore understand share price movements).

However the year on year revenue growth of 22% would help. We do see some companies suppress earnings in order to accelerate revenue growth.

The company's revenue and earnings (over time) are depicted in the image below (click to see the exact numbers).

We know that SciDev has improved its bottom line lately, but what does the future have in store? If you are thinking of buying or selling SciDev stock, you should check out this free report showing analyst profit forecasts.

A Different Perspective

It's nice to see that SciDev shareholders have received a total shareholder return of 155% over the last year. Notably the five-year annualised TSR loss of 1.2% per year compares very unfavourably with the recent share price performance. 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 SciDev better, we need to consider many other factors. Consider risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 1 warning sign for SciDev you should know about.

But note: SciDev 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 Australian 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.