If you love investing in stocks you’re bound to buy some losers. But long term Amtech Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASYS) shareholders have had a particularly rough ride in the last three year. Unfortunately, they have held through a 62% decline in the share price in that time. And more recent buyers are having a tough time too, with a drop of 25% in the last year. Shareholders have had an even rougher run lately, with the share price down 32% in the last 90 days. However, one could argue that the price has been influenced by the general market, which is down 13% in the same timeframe.

Now let’s have a look at the company’s fundamentals, and see if the long term shareholder return has matched the performance of the underlying business.

We’ve discovered 2 warning signs about Amtech Systems. View them for free.

While markets are a powerful pricing mechanism, share prices reflect investor sentiment, not just 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.

During five years of share price growth, Amtech Systems moved from a loss to profitability. That would generally be considered a positive, so we are surprised to see the share price is down. So given the share price is down it’s worth checking some other metrics too.

With revenue flat over three years, it seems unlikely that the share price is reflecting the top line. We’re not entirely sure why the share price is dropped, but it does seem likely investors have become less optimistic about the business.

The image below shows how earnings and revenue have tracked over time (if you click on the image you can see greater detail).

It’s good to see that there was some significant insider buying in the last three months. That’s a positive. That said, we think earnings and revenue growth trends are even more important factors to consider. This free report showing analyst forecasts should help you form a view on Amtech Systems

Investors in Amtech Systems had a tough year, with a total loss of 25%, against a market gain of about 7.4%. However, keep in mind that even the best stocks will sometimes underperform the market over a twelve month period. Regrettably, last year’s performance caps off a bad run, with the shareholders facing a total loss of 4% per year over five years. 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. While it is well worth considering the different impacts that market conditions can have on the share price, there are other factors that are even more important. For instance, we’ve identified 2 warning signs for Amtech Systems that you should be aware of.