The truth is that if you invest for long enough, you're going to end up with some losing stocks. But the long term shareholders of USANA Health Sciences, Inc. (NYSE:USNA) have had an unfortunate run in the last three years. Regrettably, they have had to cope with a 60% drop in the share price over that period. In contrast, the stock price has popped 8.4% in the last thirty days. But this could be related to good market conditions, with stocks up around 4.3% during the period.

Now let's have a look at the company's fundamentals, and see if the long term shareholder return has matched the performance of the underlying business.

Check out our latest analysis for USANA Health Sciences

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 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 three years that the share price fell, USANA Health Sciences' earnings per share (EPS) dropped by 24% each year. This fall in EPS isn't far from the rate of share price decline, which was 26% per year. That suggests that the market sentiment around the company hasn't changed much over that time, despite the disappointment. In this case, it seems that the EPS is guiding the share price.

The graphic below depicts how EPS has changed over time (unveil the exact values by clicking on the image).

Dive deeper into USANA Health Sciences' key metrics by checking this interactive graph of USANA Health Sciences's earnings, revenue and cash flow.

A Different Perspective

USANA Health Sciences shareholders are down 14% for the year, but the market itself is up 35%. Even the share prices of good stocks drop sometimes, but we want to see improvements in the fundamental metrics of a business, before getting too interested. 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. We realise that Baron Rothschild has said investors should "buy when there is blood on the streets", but we caution that investors should first be sure they are buying a high quality 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. For instance, we've identified 1 warning sign for USANA Health Sciences that you should be aware of.

For those who like to find winning investments this free list of undervalued companies with recent insider purchasing, could be just the ticket.

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.