Despite delivering investors losses of 43% over the past 1 year, CI&T (NYSE:CINT) has been growing its earnings

Investors can approximate the average market return by buying an index fund. But if you buy individual stocks, you can do both better or worse than that. Investors in CI&T Inc (NYSE:CINT) have tasted that bitter downside in the last year, as the share price dropped 43%. That's well below the market decline of 17%. CI&T hasn't been listed for long, so although we're wary of recent listings that perform poorly, it may still prove itself with time. Shareholders have had an even rougher run lately, with the share price down 22% in the last 90 days. This could be related to the recent financial results - you can catch up on the most recent data by reading our company report.

On a more encouraging note the company has added R$60m to its market cap in just the last 7 days, so let's see if we can determine what's driven the one-year loss for shareholders.

Check out our latest analysis for CI&T

While the efficient markets hypothesis continues to be taught by some, it has been proven that markets are over-reactive dynamic systems, and investors are not always rational. 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.

Even though the CI&T share price is down over the year, its EPS actually improved. It's quite possible that growth expectations may have been unreasonable in the past.

It's surprising to see the share price fall so much, despite the improved EPS. So it's easy to justify a look at some other metrics.

CI&T managed to grow revenue over the last year, which is usually a real positive. Since we can't easily explain the share price movement based on these metrics, it might be worth considering how market sentiment has changed towards the stock.

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

earnings-and-revenue-growth
earnings-and-revenue-growth

It is of course excellent to see how CI&T has grown profits over the years, but the future is more important for shareholders. Take a more thorough look at CI&T's financial health with this free report on its balance sheet.

A Different Perspective

CI&T shareholders are down 43% for the year, even worse than the market loss of 17%. There's no doubt that's a disappointment, but the stock may well have fared better in a stronger market. With the stock down 22% over the last three months, the market doesn't seem to believe that the company has solved all its problems. Given the relatively short history of this stock, we'd remain pretty wary until we see some strong business performance. Before forming an opinion on CI&T you might want to consider these 3 valuation metrics.

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of companies we expect will grow earnings.

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

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