UTS Marketing Solutions Holdings' (HKG:6113) Shareholders Are Down 26% On Their Shares

UTS Marketing Solutions Holdings Limited (HKG:6113) shareholders should be happy to see the share price up 15% in the last quarter. But that cannot eclipse the less-than-impressive returns over the last three years. In fact, the share price is down 26% in the last three years, falling well short of the market return.

See our latest analysis for UTS Marketing Solutions Holdings

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

UTS Marketing Solutions Holdings saw its EPS decline at a compound rate of 4.3% per year, over the last three years. This reduction in EPS is slower than the 10% annual reduction in the share price. So it seems the market was too confident about the business, in the past.

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

Dive deeper into UTS Marketing Solutions Holdings' key metrics by checking this interactive graph of UTS Marketing Solutions Holdings's earnings, revenue and cash flow.

What About Dividends?

It is important to consider the total shareholder return, as well as the share price return, for any given stock. The TSR incorporates the value of any spin-offs or discounted capital raisings, along with any dividends, based on the assumption that the dividends are reinvested. Arguably, the TSR gives a more comprehensive picture of the return generated by a stock. We note that for UTS Marketing Solutions Holdings the TSR over the last 3 years was -11%, which is better than the share price return mentioned above. And there's no prize for guessing that the dividend payments largely explain the divergence!

A Different Perspective

UTS Marketing Solutions Holdings shareholders are down 11% for the year, (even including dividends), but the broader market is up 5.6%. Of course the long term matters more than the short term, and even great stocks will sometimes have a poor year. The three-year loss of 4% per year isn't as bad as the last twelve months, suggesting that the company has not been able to convince the market it has solved its problems. We would be wary of buying into a company with unsolved problems, although some investors will buy into struggling stocks if they believe the price is sufficiently attractive. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand UTS Marketing Solutions Holdings better, we need to consider many other factors. To that end, you should learn about the 3 warning signs we've spotted with UTS Marketing Solutions Holdings (including 1 which is concerning) .

For those who like to find winning investments this free list of growing companies with recent insider purchasing, could be just the ticket.

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