Optimism for CL Educate (NSE:CLEDUCATE) has grown this past week, despite five-year decline in earnings

While CL Educate Limited (NSE:CLEDUCATE) shareholders are probably generally happy, the stock hasn't had particularly good run recently, with the share price falling 22% in the last quarter. But that doesn't change the fact that the returns over the last half decade have been spectacular. Indeed, the share price is up a whopping 604% in that time. Arguably, the recent fall is to be expected after such a strong rise. But the real question is whether the business fundamentals can improve over the long term. Anyone who held for that rewarding ride would probably be keen to talk about it.

Since it's been a strong week for CL Educate shareholders, let's have a look at trend of the longer term fundamentals.

We've discovered 4 warning signs about CL Educate. View them for free.

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 five years of share price growth, CL Educate moved from a loss to profitability. That kind of transition can be an inflection point that justifies a strong share price gain, just as we have seen here.

The image below shows how EPS has tracked over time (if you click on the image you can see greater detail).

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

A Different Perspective

We regret to report that CL Educate shareholders are down 1.3% for the year. Unfortunately, that's worse than the broader market decline of 1.1%. Having said that, it's inevitable that some stocks will be oversold in a falling market. The key is to keep your eyes on the fundamental developments. Longer term investors wouldn't be so upset, since they would have made 48%, each year, over five years. If the fundamental data continues to indicate long term sustainable growth, the current sell-off could be an opportunity worth considering. I find it very interesting to look at share price over the long term as a proxy for business performance. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too. Like risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 4 warning signs for CL Educate (of which 1 is potentially serious!) you should know about.

We will like CL Educate better if we see some big insider buys. While we wait, check out this free list of undervalued stocks (mostly small caps) 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 Indian 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.