Investing can be hard but the potential fo an individual stock to pay off big time inspires us. You won't get it right every time, but when you do, the returns can be truly splendid. One such superstar is Modine Manufacturing Company (NYSE:MOD), which saw its share price soar 982% in three years. In contrast, the stock has fallen 9.0% in the last 30 days. The company reported its financial results recently; you can catch up on the latest numbers by reading our company report. We love happy stories like this one. The company should be really proud of that performance!

Although Modine Manufacturing has shed US$387m from its market cap this week, let's take a look at its longer term fundamental trends and see if they've driven returns.

See our latest analysis for Modine Manufacturing

In his essay The Superinvestors of Graham-and-Doddsville Warren Buffett described how share prices do not always rationally reflect the value of a business. 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 three years of share price growth, Modine Manufacturing moved from a loss to profitability. That kind of transition can be an inflection point that justifies a strong share price gain, just as we have seen here.

The image below shows how EPS has tracked over time (if you click on the image you can see greater detail).

It is of course excellent to see how Modine Manufacturing has grown profits over the years, but the future is more important for shareholders. You can see how its balance sheet has strengthened (or weakened) over time in this free interactive graphic.

A Different Perspective

It's good to see that Modine Manufacturing has rewarded shareholders with a total shareholder return of 194% in the last twelve months. Since the one-year TSR is better than the five-year TSR (the latter coming in at 60% per year), it would seem that the stock's performance has improved in recent times. Given the share price momentum remains strong, it might be worth taking a closer look at the stock, lest you miss an opportunity. I find it very interesting to look at share price over the long term as a proxy for business performance. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too. Case in point: We've spotted 2 warning signs for Modine Manufacturing you should be aware of.

But note: Modine Manufacturing may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies with past earnings growth (and further growth forecast).