Unless you borrow money to invest, the potential losses are limited. But when you pick a company that is really flourishing, you can make more than 100%. For example, the ACRES Commercial Realty Corp. (NYSE:ACR) share price had more than doubled in just one year - up 124%. In more good news, the share price has risen 10% in thirty days. We note that ACRES Commercial Realty reported its financial results recently; luckily, you can catch up on the latest revenue and profit numbers in our company report. The longer term returns have not been as good, with the stock price only 19% higher than it was three years ago.

With that in mind, it's worth seeing if the company's underlying fundamentals have been the driver of long term performance, or if there are some discrepancies.

See our latest analysis for ACRES Commercial Realty

To paraphrase Benjamin Graham: Over the short term the market is a voting machine, but over the long term it's a weighing machine. One way to examine how market sentiment has changed over time is to look at the interaction between a company's share price and its earnings per share (EPS).

ACRES Commercial Realty went from making a loss to reporting a profit, in the last year.

When a company is just on the edge of profitability it can be well worth considering other metrics in order to more precisely gauge growth (and therefore understand share price movements).

However the year on year revenue growth of 8.8% would help. Many businesses do go through a phase where they have to forgo some profits to drive business development, and sometimes its for the best.

The company's revenue and earnings (over time) are depicted in the image below (click to see the exact numbers).

We know that ACRES Commercial Realty has improved its bottom line lately, but what does the future have in store? You can see what analysts are predicting for ACRES Commercial Realty in this interactive graph of future profit estimates.

A Different Perspective

It's nice to see that ACRES Commercial Realty shareholders have received a total shareholder return of 124% over the last year. That certainly beats the loss of about 9% per year over the last half decade. We generally put more weight on the long term performance over the short term, but the recent improvement could hint at a (positive) inflection point within the business. 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. Case in point: We've spotted 3 warning signs for ACRES Commercial Realty you should be aware of, and 2 of them shouldn't be ignored.

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 American 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.