Yahoo Finance RWE's (ETR:RWE) investors will be pleased with their respectable 48% return over the last five years
It hasn't been the best quarter for RWE Aktiengesellschaft (ETR:RWE) shareholders, since the share price has fallen 25% in that time. But that doesn't change the fact that the returns over the last five years have been pleasing. It has returned a market beating 30% in that time.
So let's investigate and see if the longer term performance of the company has been in line with the underlying business' progress.
See our latest analysis for RWE
In his essay The Superinvestors of Graham-and-Doddsville Warren Buffett described how share prices do not always rationally reflect the value of a business. 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 last half decade, RWE became profitable. That would generally be considered a positive, so we'd hope to see the share price to rise. Since the company was unprofitable five years ago, but not three years ago, it's worth taking a look at the returns in the last three years, too. We can see that the RWE share price is down 11% in the last three years. During the same period, EPS grew by 14% each year. It would appear there's a real mismatch between the increasing EPS and the share price, which has declined -4% a year for three years.
The graphic below depicts how EPS has changed over time (unveil the exact values by clicking on the image).
This free interactive report on RWE's earnings, revenue and cash flow is a great place to start, if you want to investigate the stock further.
What About Dividends?
When looking at investment returns, it is important to consider the difference between total shareholder return (TSR) and share price return. 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. Arguably, the TSR gives a more comprehensive picture of the return generated by a stock. As it happens, RWE's TSR for the last 5 years was 48%, which exceeds the share price return mentioned earlier. The dividends paid by the company have thusly boosted the total shareholder return.
A Different Perspective
While the broader market gained around 7.7% in the last year, RWE shareholders lost 22% (even including dividends). 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 8%, each year, over five years. 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. While it is well worth considering the different impacts that market conditions can have on the share price, there are other factors that are even more important. Case in point: We've spotted 3 warning signs for RWE you should be aware of, and 1 of them is significant.
But note: RWE may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies with past earnings growth (and further growth forecast).
Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on German exchanges.
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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.
