Reflecting on Progress-Werk Oberkirch's (ETR:PWO) Share Price Returns Over The Last Three Years

It is a pleasure to report that the Progress-Werk Oberkirch AG (ETR:PWO) is up 37% in the last quarter. But that cannot eclipse the less-than-impressive returns over the last three years. After all, the share price is down 51% in the last three years, significantly under-performing the market.

View our latest analysis for Progress-Werk Oberkirch

To paraphrase Benjamin Graham: Over the short term the market is a voting machine, but over the long term it's a weighing machine. By comparing earnings per share (EPS) and share price changes over time, we can get a feel for how investor attitudes to a company have morphed over time.

Over the three years that the share price declined, Progress-Werk Oberkirch's earnings per share (EPS) dropped significantly, falling to a loss. Since the company has fallen to a loss making position, it's hard to compare the change in EPS with the share price change. However, we can say we'd expect to see a falling share price in this scenario.

You can see how EPS has changed over time in the image below (click on the chart to see the exact values).

This free interactive report on Progress-Werk Oberkirch's earnings, revenue and cash flow is a great place to start, if you want to investigate the stock further.

What about the Total Shareholder Return (TSR)?

Investors should note that there's a difference between Progress-Werk Oberkirch's total shareholder return (TSR) and its share price change, which we've covered above. The TSR is a return calculation that accounts for the value of cash dividends (assuming that any dividend received was reinvested) and the calculated value of any discounted capital raisings and spin-offs. Progress-Werk Oberkirch's TSR of was a loss of 46% for the 3 years. That wasn't as bad as its share price return, because it has paid dividends.

A Different Perspective

Progress-Werk Oberkirch shareholders are down 5.0% for the year, but the market itself is up 8.9%. 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. Unfortunately, last year's performance may indicate unresolved challenges, given that it was worse than the annualised loss of 1.8% over the last half decade. Generally speaking long term share price weakness can be a bad sign, though contrarian investors might want to research the stock in hope of a turnaround. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Progress-Werk Oberkirch better, we need to consider many other factors. Even so, be aware that Progress-Werk Oberkirch is showing 3 warning signs in our investment analysis , and 1 of those shouldn't be ignored...

But note: Progress-Werk Oberkirch 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 DE exchanges.

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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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