Dabur India (NSE:DABUR) investors are sitting on a loss of 13% if they invested a year ago

It's easy to match the overall market return by buying an index fund. When you buy individual stocks, you can make higher profits, but you also face the risk of under-performance. That downside risk was realized by Dabur India Limited (NSE:DABUR) shareholders over the last year, as the share price declined 15%. That contrasts poorly with the market decline of 2.9%. Longer term shareholders haven't suffered as badly, since the stock is down a comparatively less painful 8.3% in three years. Even worse, it's down 9.6% in about a month, which isn't fun at all.

It's worthwhile assessing if the company's economics have been moving in lockstep with these underwhelming shareholder returns, or if there is some disparity between the two. So let's do just that.

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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. 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.

Unhappily, Dabur India had to report a 5.1% decline in EPS over the last year. This reduction in EPS is not as bad as the 15% share price fall. Unsurprisingly, given the lack of EPS growth, the market seems to be more cautious about the stock.

The graphic below depicts how EPS has changed over time (unveil the exact values by clicking on the image).

Before buying or selling a stock, we always recommend a close examination of historic growth trends, available here.

A Different Perspective

We regret to report that Dabur India shareholders are down 13% for the year (even including dividends). Unfortunately, that's worse than the broader market decline of 2.9%. However, it could simply be that the share price has been impacted by broader market jitters. It might be worth keeping an eye on the fundamentals, in case there's a good opportunity. Unfortunately, last year's performance may indicate unresolved challenges, given that it was worse than the annualised loss of 0.6% over the last half decade. We realise that Baron Rothschild has said investors should "buy when there is blood on the streets", but we caution that investors should first be sure they are buying a high quality business. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Dabur India better, we need to consider many other factors. To that end, you should be aware of the 1 warning sign we've spotted with Dabur India .

We will like Dabur India better if we see some big insider buys. While we wait, check out this free list of undervalued stocks (mostly small caps) 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 Indian 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.