Yahoo Finance Introducing Principal Financial Group (NASDAQ:PFG), A Stock That Climbed 15% In The Last Year
On average, over time, stock markets tend to rise higher. This makes investing attractive. But not every stock you buy will perform as well as the overall market. Unfortunately for shareholders, while the Principal Financial Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:PFG) share price is up 15% in the last year, that falls short of the market return. Zooming out, the stock is actually down 9.2% in the last three years.
View our latest analysis for Principal Financial Group
There is no denying that markets are sometimes efficient, but prices do not always reflect underlying business performance. 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).
Over the last twelve months, Principal Financial Group actually shrank its EPS by 37%.
So we don't think that investors are paying too much attention to EPS. Since the change in EPS doesn't seem to correlate with the change in share price, it's worth taking a look at other metrics.
We think that the revenue growth of 16% could have some investors interested. Many businesses do go through a phase where they have to forgo some profits to drive business development, and sometimes its for the best.
The company's revenue and earnings (over time) are depicted in the image below (click to see the exact numbers).
This free interactive report on Principal Financial Group's balance sheet strength 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, Principal Financial Group's TSR for the last year was 20%, which exceeds the share price return mentioned earlier. This is largely a result of its dividend payments!
A Different Perspective
Principal Financial Group provided a TSR of 20% over the last twelve months. But that was short of the market average. On the bright side, that's still a gain, and it's actually better than the average return of 5.3% over half a decade This suggests the company might be improving over time. 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. Be aware that Principal Financial Group is showing 1 warning sign in our investment analysis , you should know about...
We will like Principal Financial 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 US exchanges.
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.
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. Thank you for reading.
