Yahoo Finance Some Northfield Bancorp (Staten Island NY) (NASDAQ:NFBK) Shareholders Are Down 13%
It’s easy to match the overall market return by buying an index fund. When you buy individual stocks, you can make higher profits, but you also face the risk of under-performance. That downside risk was realized by Northfield Bancorp, Inc. (Staten Island, NY) (NASDAQ:NFBK) shareholders over the last year, as the share price declined 13%. That’s well bellow the market return of 3.0%. Even if shareholders bought some time ago, they wouldn’t be particularly happy: the stock is down 12% in three years. The silver lining is that the stock is up 1.4% in about a week.
See our latest analysis for Northfield Bancorp (Staten Island NY)
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.
Even though the Northfield Bancorp (Staten Island NY) share price is down over the year, its EPS actually improved. It could be that the share price was previously over-hyped. The divergence between the EPS and the share price is quite notable, during the year. So it’s easy to justify a look at some other metrics.
Revenue was fairly steady year on year, which isn’t usually such a bad thing. But the share price might be lower because the market expected a meaningful improvement, and got none.
The chart below shows how revenue and earnings have changed with time, (if you click on the chart you can see the actual values).
We like that insiders have been buying shares in the last twelve months. Even so, future earnings will be far more important to whether current shareholders make money. If you are thinking of buying or selling Northfield Bancorp (Staten Island NY) stock, you should check out this free report showing analyst profit forecasts.
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. So for companies that pay a generous dividend, the TSR is often a lot higher than the share price return. In the case of Northfield Bancorp (Staten Island NY), it has a TSR of -11% for the last year. That exceeds its share price return that we previously mentioned. This is largely a result of its dividend payments!
A Different Perspective
While the broader market gained around 3.0% in the last year, Northfield Bancorp (Staten Island NY) shareholders lost 11% (even including dividends). However, keep in mind that even the best stocks will sometimes underperform the market over a twelve month period. On the bright side, long term shareholders have made money, with a gain of 4.4% per year over half a decade. It could be that the recent sell-off is an opportunity, so it may be worth checking the fundamental data for signs of a long term growth trend. Investors who like to make money usually check up on insider purchases, such as the price paid, and total amount bought. You can find out about the insider purchases of Northfield Bancorp (Staten Island NY) by clicking this link.
If you like to buy stocks alongside management, then you might just love this free list of companies. (Hint: insiders have been buying them).
Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on US 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.
