Yahoo Finance P.A.M. Transportation Services' (NASDAQ:PTSI) 40% CAGR outpaced the company's earnings growth over the same five-year period
We think all investors should try to buy and hold high quality multi-year winners. And highest quality companies can see their share prices grow by huge amounts. To wit, the P.A.M. Transportation Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:PTSI) share price has soared 436% over five years. This just goes to show the value creation that some businesses can achieve. On top of that, the share price is up 79% in about a quarter.
Since the stock has added US$85m to its market cap in the past week alone, let's see if underlying performance has been driving long-term returns.
Check out our latest analysis for P.A.M. Transportation Services
While the efficient markets hypothesis continues to be taught by some, it has been proven that markets are over-reactive dynamic systems, and investors are not always rational. 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).
During the five years of share price growth, P.A.M. Transportation Services moved from a loss to profitability. Sometimes, the start of profitability is a major inflection point that can signal fast earnings growth to come, which in turn justifies very strong share price gains.
The image below shows how EPS has tracked over time (if you click on the image you can see greater detail).
It's good to see that there was some significant insider buying in the last three months. That's a positive. That said, we think earnings and revenue growth trends are even more important factors to consider. This free interactive report on P.A.M. Transportation Services' earnings, revenue and cash flow is a great place to start, if you want to investigate the stock further.
A Different Perspective
It's nice to see that P.A.M. Transportation Services shareholders have received a total shareholder return of 151% over the last year. Since the one-year TSR is better than the five-year TSR (the latter coming in at 40% per year), it would seem that the stock's performance has improved in recent times. Someone with an optimistic perspective could view the recent improvement in TSR as indicating that the business itself is getting better with 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. Consider risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 3 warning signs for P.A.M. Transportation Services you should know about.
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.
This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. 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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