Long term investing is the way to go, but that doesn't mean you should hold every stock forever. It hits us in the gut when we see fellow investors suffer a loss. Anyone who held ChinaNet Online Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CNET) for five years would be nursing their metaphorical wounds since the share price dropped 71% in that time. And it's not just long term holders hurting, because the stock is down 29% in the last year. There was little comfort for shareholders in the last week as the price declined a further 1.5%.

View our latest analysis for ChinaNet Online Holdings

ChinaNet Online Holdings isn't currently profitable, so most analysts would look to revenue growth to get an idea of how fast the underlying business is growing. When a company doesn't make profits, we'd generally expect to see good revenue growth. That's because fast revenue growth can be easily extrapolated to forecast profits, often of considerable size.

Over five years, ChinaNet Online Holdings grew its revenue at 13% per year. That's a fairly respectable growth rate. So it is unexpected to see the stock down 22% per year in the last five years. The truth is that the growth might be below expectations, and investors are probably worried about the continual losses.

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

We're pleased to report that the CEO is remunerated more modestly than most CEOs at similarly capitalized companies. But while CEO remuneration is always worth checking, the really important question is whether the company can grow earnings going forward. Before buying or selling a stock, we always recommend a close examination of historic growth trends, available here..

A Different Perspective

ChinaNet Online Holdings shareholders are down 29% for the year, but the market itself is up 16%. 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 22% over the last half decade. We realise that Buffett 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 businesses. You could get a better understanding of ChinaNet Online Holdings's growth by checking out this more detailed historical graph of earnings, revenue and cash flow.