The most you can lose on any stock (assuming you don't use leverage) is 100% of your money. But in contrast you can make much more than 100% if the company does well. For example, the Tenaz Energy Corp. (TSE:TNZ) share price has soared 214% in the last three years. That sort of return is as solid as granite. It's also up 85% in about a month.

So let's investigate and see if the longer term performance of the company has been in line with the underlying business' progress.

View our latest analysis for Tenaz Energy

In his essay The Superinvestors of Graham-and-Doddsville Warren Buffett described how share prices do not always rationally reflect the value of a business. By comparing earnings per share (EPS) and share price changes over time, we can get a feel for how investor attitudes to a company have morphed over time.

Over the last three years, Tenaz Energy failed to grow earnings per share, which fell 7.3% (annualized).

This means it's unlikely the market is judging the company based on earnings growth. Since the change in EPS doesn't seem to correlate with the change in share price, it's worth taking a look at other metrics.

It may well be that Tenaz Energy revenue growth rate of 60% over three years has convinced shareholders to believe in a brighter future. If the company is being managed for the long term good, today's shareholders might be right to hold on.

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

It's probably worth noting we've seen significant insider buying in the last quarter, which we consider a positive. That said, we think earnings and revenue growth trends are even more important factors to consider. So it makes a lot of sense to check out what analysts think Tenaz Energy will earn in the future (free profit forecasts).

A Different Perspective

It's nice to see that Tenaz Energy shareholders have received a total shareholder return of 79% over the last year. That's better than the annualised return of 15% over half a decade, implying that the company is doing better recently. Someone with an optimistic perspective could view the recent improvement in TSR as indicating that the business itself is getting better with time. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Tenaz Energy better, we need to consider many other factors. For example, we've discovered 2 warning signs for Tenaz Energy that you should be aware of before investing here.