It's nice to see the Morarjee Textiles Limited (NSE:MORARJEE) share price up 11% in a week. But that is small recompense for the exasperating returns over three years. In that time, the share price dropped 55%. So it's good to see it climbing back up. Perhaps the company has turned over a new leaf.

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Check out our latest analysis for Morarjee Textiles

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.

Over the three years that the share price declined, Morarjee Textiles'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. However, we can say we'd expect to see a falling share price in this scenario.

The company's earnings per share (over time) is depicted in the image below (click to see the exact numbers).

Before buying or selling a stock, we always recommend a close examination of historic growth trends, available here..

A Dividend Lost

The share price return figures discussed above don't include the value of dividends paid previously, but the total shareholder return (TSR) does. In some ways, TSR is a better measure of how well an investment has performed. Morarjee Textiles's TSR over the last 3 years is -53%; better than its share price return. Even though the company isn't paying dividends at the moment, it has done in the past.

A Different Perspective

While the broader market gained around 2.0% in the last year, Morarjee Textiles shareholders lost 45%. However, keep in mind that even the best stocks will sometimes underperform the market over a twelve month period. Unfortunately, last year's performance may indicate unresolved challenges, given that it was worse than the annualised loss of 10.0% over the last half decade. 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. You might want to assess this data-rich visualization of its earnings, revenue and cash flow.

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