The 20% return this week takes Accsys Technologies' (LON:AXS) shareholders three-year gains to 22%

By buying an index fund, you can roughly match the market return with ease. But if you buy good businesses at attractive prices, your portfolio returns could exceed the average market return. Just take a look at Accsys Technologies PLC (LON:AXS), which is up 22%, over three years, soundly beating the market return of 12% (not including dividends). However, more recent returns haven't been as impressive as that, with the stock returning just 5.6% in the last year.

Since it's been a strong week for Accsys Technologies shareholders, let's have a look at trend of the longer term fundamentals.

View our latest analysis for Accsys Technologies

To quote Buffett, 'Ships will sail around the world but the Flat Earth Society will flourish. There will continue to be wide discrepancies between price and value in the marketplace...' One flawed but reasonable way to assess how sentiment around a company has changed is to compare the earnings per share (EPS) with the share price.

During the three years of share price growth, Accsys Technologies actually saw its earnings per share (EPS) drop 131% per year. In this instance, recent extraordinary items impacted the earnings.

So we doubt that the market is looking to EPS for its main judge of the company's value. Since the change in EPS doesn't seem to correlate with the change in share price, it's worth taking a look at other metrics.

It could be that the revenue growth of 17% per year is viewed as evidence that Accsys Technologies is growing. In that case, the company may be sacrificing current earnings per share to drive growth, and maybe shareholder's faith in better days ahead will be rewarded.

You can see how earnings and revenue have changed over time in the image below (click on the chart to see the exact values).

If you are thinking of buying or selling Accsys Technologies stock, you should check out this FREE detailed report on its balance sheet.

A Different Perspective

We're pleased to report that Accsys Technologies shareholders have received a total shareholder return of 5.6% over one year. That gain is better than the annual TSR over five years, which is 3%. Therefore it seems like sentiment around the company has been positive lately. Someone with an optimistic perspective could view the recent improvement in TSR as indicating that the business itself is getting better with time. 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. Consider risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 1 warning sign for Accsys Technologies you should know about.

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of companies we expect will grow earnings.

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.