X5 Retail Group's (LON:FIVE) one-year earnings growth trails the respectable shareholder returns

These days it's easy to simply buy an index fund, and your returns should (roughly) match the market. But if you pick the right individual stocks, you could make more than that. For example, the X5 Retail Group N.V. (LON:FIVE) share price is up 91% in the last 1 year, clearly besting the market decline of around 5.3% (not including dividends). If it can keep that out-performance up over the long term, investors will do very well! Zooming out, the stock is actually down 39% in the last three years.

The past week has proven to be lucrative for X5 Retail Group investors, so let's see if fundamentals drove the company's one-year performance.

View our latest analysis for X5 Retail Group

While markets are a powerful pricing mechanism, share prices reflect investor sentiment, not just underlying business performance. 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).

X5 Retail Group was able to grow EPS by 25% in the last twelve months. This EPS growth is significantly lower than the 91% increase in the share price. This indicates that the market is now more optimistic about the stock.

The image below shows how EPS has tracked over time (if you click on the image you can see greater detail).

We know that X5 Retail Group has improved its bottom line lately, but is it going to grow revenue? You could check out this free report showing analyst revenue forecasts.

A Different Perspective

We're pleased to report that X5 Retail Group shareholders have received a total shareholder return of 91% over one year. There's no doubt those recent returns are much better than the TSR loss of 0.5% per year over five years. The long term loss makes us cautious, but the short term TSR gain certainly hints at a brighter future. 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. Even so, be aware that X5 Retail Group is showing 2 warning signs in our investment analysis , you should know about...

We will like X5 Retail Group better if we see some big insider buys. While we wait, check out this free list of growing companies with considerable, recent, insider buying.

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on British 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.