Every investor on earth makes bad calls sometimes. But you want to avoid the really big losses like the plague. So take a moment to sympathize with the long term shareholders of Lotte Chemical Titan Holding Berhad (KLSE:LCTITAN), who have seen the share price tank a massive 80% over a three year period. That’d be enough to cause even the strongest minds some disquiet. And over the last year the share price fell 62%, so we doubt many shareholders are delighted. Shareholders have had an even rougher run lately, with the share price down 27% in the last 90 days. We really hope anyone holding through that price crash has a diversified portfolio. Even when you lose money, you don’t have to lose the lesson.

So let’s have a look and see if the longer term performance of the company has been in line with the underlying business’ progress.

Given that Lotte Chemical Titan Holding Berhad didn’t make a profit in the last twelve months, we’ll focus on revenue growth to form a quick view of its business development. When a company doesn’t make profits, we’d generally hope to see good revenue growth. As you can imagine, fast revenue growth, when maintained, often leads to fast profit growth.

In the last three years Lotte Chemical Titan Holding Berhad saw its revenue shrink by 14% per year. That is not a good result. The share price fall of 22% (per year, over three years) is a stern reminder that money-losing companies are expected to grow revenue. We’re generally averse to companies with declining revenues, but we’re not alone in that. There’s no more than a snowball’s chance in hell that share price will head back to its old highs, in the short term.

You can see how earnings and revenue have changed over time in the image below (click on the chart to see the exact values).

This free interactive report on Lotte Chemical Titan Holding Berhad’s balance sheet strength is a great place to start, if you want to investigate the stock further.

While the broader market lost about 0.5% in the twelve months, Lotte Chemical Titan Holding Berhad shareholders did even worse, losing 62%. However, it could simply be that the share price has been impacted by broader market jitters. It might be worth keeping an eye on the fundamentals, in case there’s a good opportunity. Unfortunately, last year’s performance may indicate unresolved challenges, given that it was worse than the annualised loss of 8% 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. 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. Consider for instance, the ever-present spectre of investment risk. We’ve identified 2 warning signs with Lotte Chemical Titan Holding Berhad (at least 1 which is significant) , and understanding them should be part of your investment process.