Yahoo Finance Spire (NYSE:SR) Share Prices Have Dropped 32% In The Last Year
Passive investing in an index fund is a good way to ensure your own returns roughly match the overall market. When you buy individual stocks, you can make higher profits, but you also face the risk of under-performance. Unfortunately the Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) share price slid 32% over twelve months. That's disappointing when you consider the market returned 24%. Longer term shareholders haven't suffered as badly, since the stock is down a comparatively less painful 25% in three years. The falls have accelerated recently, with the share price down 22% in the last three months.
See our latest analysis for Spire
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 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.
Unhappily, Spire had to report a 69% decline in EPS over the last year. This fall in the EPS is significantly worse than the 32% the share price fall. So despite the weak per-share profits, some investors are probably relieved the situation wasn't more difficult. With a P/E ratio of 49.86, it's fair to say the market sees an EPS rebound on the cards.
The company's earnings per share (over time) is depicted in the image below (click to see the exact numbers).
We consider it positive that insiders have made significant purchases in the last year. Having said that, most people consider earnings and revenue growth trends to be a more meaningful guide to the business. Before buying or selling a stock, we always recommend a close examination of historic growth trends, available here..
What About Dividends?
It is important to consider the total shareholder return, as well as the share price return, for any given stock. 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. So for companies that pay a generous dividend, the TSR is often a lot higher than the share price return. We note that for Spire the TSR over the last year was -30%, which is better than the share price return mentioned above. This is largely a result of its dividend payments!
A Different Perspective
Spire shareholders are down 30% for the year (even including dividends), but the market itself is up 24%. 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 5.7% per year over half a decade. If the fundamental data continues to indicate long term sustainable growth, the current sell-off could be an opportunity worth considering. 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. Even so, be aware that Spire is showing 5 warning signs in our investment analysis , and 1 of those is significant...
There are plenty of other companies that have insiders buying up shares. You probably do not want to miss this free list of growing companies that insiders are 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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