Yahoo Finance How Much Did Insteel Industries'(NASDAQ:IIIN) Shareholders Earn From Share Price Movements Over The Last Three Years?
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Insteel Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:IIIN) shareholders should be happy to see the share price up 17% in the last month. But that doesn't help the fact that the three year return is less impressive. In fact, the share price is down 39% in the last three years, falling well short of the market return.
Check out our latest analysis for Insteel Industries
To quote Buffett, 'Ships will sail around the world but the Flat Earth Society will flourish. There will continue to be wide discrepancies between price and value in the marketplace...' 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 the three years that the share price fell, Insteel Industries' earnings per share (EPS) dropped by 47% each year. In comparison the 15% compound annual share price decline isn't as bad as the EPS drop-off. This suggests that the market retains some optimism around long term earnings stability, despite past EPS declines. With a P/E ratio of 71.51, it's fair to say the market sees a brighter future for the business.
The graphic below depicts how EPS has changed over time (unveil the exact values by clicking on the image).
This free interactive report on Insteel Industries' earnings, revenue and cash flow is a great place to start, if you want to investigate the stock further.
What About Dividends?
As well as measuring the share price return, investors should also consider the total shareholder return (TSR). Whereas the share price return only reflects the change in the share price, the TSR includes the value of dividends (assuming they were reinvested) and the benefit of any discounted capital raising or spin-off. It's fair to say that the TSR gives a more complete picture for stocks that pay a dividend. As it happens, Insteel Industries' TSR for the last 3 years was -36%, 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
While the broader market gained around 11% in the last year, Insteel Industries shareholders lost 4.9% (even including dividends) . However, keep in mind that even the best stocks will sometimes underperform the market over a twelve month period. Longer term investors wouldn't be so upset, since they would have made 4.8%, 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. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Insteel Industries better, we need to consider many other factors. Take risks, for example - Insteel Industries has 2 warning signs we think you should be aware of.
We will like Insteel Industries 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.
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. 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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