Unless you borrow money to invest, the potential losses are limited. But if you pick the right business to buy shares in, you can make more than you can lose. For example, the SkyWest, Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYW) share price had more than doubled in just one year - up 104%. In more good news, the share price has risen 8.7% in thirty days. Also impressive, the stock is up 62% over three years, making long term shareholders happy, too.

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 SkyWest

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 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 the last year SkyWest grew its earnings per share, moving from a loss to a profit.

When a company has just transitioned to profitability, earnings per share growth is not always the best way to look at the share price action.

However the year on year revenue growth of 10% 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 graphic below depicts how earnings and revenue have changed over time (unveil the exact values by clicking on the image).

We know that SkyWest has improved its bottom line over the last three years, but what does the future have in store? If you are thinking of buying or selling SkyWest stock, you should check out this FREE detailed report on its balance sheet.

A Different Perspective

It's nice to see that SkyWest shareholders have received a total shareholder return of 104% over the last year. That's better than the annualised return of 9% 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 SkyWest better, we need to consider many other factors. To that end, you should be aware of the 1 warning sign we've spotted with SkyWest .

If you are like me, then you will not want to miss this free list of undervalued small caps that insiders are buying.

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.