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The Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ASX:ANZ) Share Price Is Down 21% So Some Shareholders Are Getting Worried

For many, the main point of investing is to generate higher returns than the overall market. But the main game is to find enough winners to more than offset the losers So we wouldn't blame long term Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ASX:ANZ) shareholders for doubting their decision to hold, with the stock down 21% over a half decade. It's down 1.7% in the last seven days.

See our latest analysis for Australia and New Zealand Banking Group

While markets are a powerful pricing mechanism, share prices reflect investor sentiment, not just underlying business performance. One flawed but reasonable way to assess how sentiment around a company has changed is to compare the earnings per share (EPS) with the share price.

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Looking back five years, both Australia and New Zealand Banking Group's share price and EPS declined; the latter at a rate of 2.0% per year. This reduction in EPS is less than the 4.7% annual reduction in the share price. So it seems the market was too confident about the business, in the past. The low P/E ratio of 11.69 further reflects this reticence.

You can see below how EPS has changed over time (discover the exact values by clicking on the image).

ASX:ANZ Past and Future Earnings, August 27th 2019
ASX:ANZ Past and Future Earnings, August 27th 2019

This free interactive report on Australia and New Zealand Banking Group's earnings, revenue and cash flow is a great place to start, if you want to investigate the stock further.

What About Dividends?

It is important to consider the total shareholder return, as well as the share price return, for any given stock. The TSR incorporates the value of any spin-offs or discounted capital raisings, along with any dividends, based on the assumption that the dividends are reinvested. Arguably, the TSR gives a more comprehensive picture of the return generated by a stock. As it happens, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group's TSR for the last 5 years was 5.4%, which exceeds the share price return mentioned earlier. And there's no prize for guessing that the dividend payments largely explain the divergence!

A Different Perspective

Australia and New Zealand Banking Group shareholders are down 2.2% for the year (even including dividends), but the market itself is up 8.0%. 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. Longer term investors wouldn't be so upset, since they would have made 1.1%, each year, over five years. If the fundamental data continues to indicate long term sustainable growth, the current sell-off could be an opportunity worth considering. Keeping this in mind, a solid next step might be to take a look at Australia and New Zealand Banking Group's dividend track record. This free interactive graph is a great place to start.

We will like Australia and New Zealand Banking Group better if we see some big insider buys. While we wait, check out this free list of growing companies with considerable, recent, insider buying.

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on AU exchanges.

We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.