As Callon Petroleum (NYSE:CPE) lifts 9.9% this past week, investors may now be noticing the company's five-year earnings growth

Callon Petroleum Company (NYSE:CPE) shareholders should be happy to see the share price up 14% in the last month. But that can't change the reality that over the longer term (five years), the returns have been really quite dismal. In that time the share price has delivered a rude shock to holders, who find themselves down 59% after a long stretch. Some might say the recent bounce is to be expected after such a bad drop. But it could be that the fall was overdone.

While the stock has risen 9.9% in the past week but long term shareholders are still in the red, let's see what the fundamentals can tell us.

Check out our latest analysis for Callon Petroleum

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).

Callon Petroleum became profitable within the last five years. That would generally be considered a positive, so we are surprised to see the share price is down. Other metrics might give us a better handle on how its value is changing over time.

In contrast to the share price, revenue has actually increased by 42% a year in the five year period. So it seems one might have to take closer look at the fundamentals to understand why the share price languishes. After all, there may be an opportunity.

You can see below how earnings and revenue have changed over time (discover the exact values by clicking on the image).

We know that Callon Petroleum has improved its bottom line lately, but what does the future have in store? So we recommend checking out this free report showing consensus forecasts

A Different Perspective

It's good to see that Callon Petroleum has rewarded shareholders with a total shareholder return of 36% in the last twelve months. That certainly beats the loss of about 10% 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. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Callon Petroleum better, we need to consider many other factors. Like risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 3 warning signs for Callon Petroleum (of which 1 is significant!) you should know about.

If you like to buy stocks alongside management, then you might just love this free list of companies. (Hint: insiders have been buying them).

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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