Over the past three years, China Titans Energy Technology Group Limited's long-term investors have had a disappointing ride. Unfortunately, at that point, they kept the share price down by 68 points.
Yet just last year, the trip hasn't become much smoother, with the cost heading down 41 percent in that time. In fact, it's down 23 percent in that timeframe. And that's not right.
Because China Titans Energy Technology Group (HKG: 2188) has not made a profit in the last twelve months, investors have since focused on revenue growth - which is the most important - to create a quick view of its business development.
Investors generally expect good growth in sales. That's because quick revenue growth, often of considerable size, can be quickly extrapolated to future earnings.
China Titans Energy has seen its revenue increase by 0.9 percent per year over the last three years, compounded. Because it's losing money in pursuit of progress, that doesn't really impress would-be stakeholders.
Without a doubt, this uninspiring growth in revenue has helped to send the share price down; it has fallen by 31 percent over the period.
Most shareholders like to attach the firm to a watchlist when a stock falls hard like this (in case the sector rebounds, longer term). Thus, market players keep in mind that having a hard time or a few uninspiring years is not uncommon for good businesses.
Investor shares of China Titans Energy were down 40 percent, year-on-year, but the industry itself is up 7.4 percent, which gives another side to the story.
Investors always remind themsevels that even the strongest stocks often underperform the sector over a span of twelve months.
Unfortunately, the results of last year may suggest persistent problems, provided that over the past half decade it has been worse than the annualized loss of 18 percent.
Generally speaking, long-term share price volatility can be a bad sign, although in the expectation of a recovery, and in this case for China Titans Energy, shareholders may want to study the stock seriously. Shareholders may want to look at this comprehensive history of past profits, sales, and cash flow.
Meanwhile, because the company has a Beta of 1.18, analysts assume that the share price of the China Titans Energy was fairly sensitive to market volatility (at least, over the past five years).
If the past is any guide, market observers expect its shares to rise faster in times of optimism, but fall faster in times of pessimism. Beta is worth considering, but it is also important to consider the Chinese energy firm's sales and profits trajectory.
China Titans Energy Group was established in September 1992 and is based in Zhuhai, Guangdong Province. It is focused on power electronics, power generation, electric vehicles and car charging technology, solar power, research and development.
