ARGO GRAPHICS' (TSE:7595) five-year earnings growth trails the solid shareholder returns

Stock pickers are generally looking for stocks that will outperform the broader market. And in our experience, buying the right stocks can give your wealth a significant boost. To wit, the ARGO GRAPHICS share price has climbed 91% in five years, easily topping the market return of 74% (ignoring dividends). On the other hand, the more recent gains haven't been so impressive, with shareholders gaining just 24%, including dividends.

The past week has proven to be lucrative for ARGO GRAPHICS investors, so let's see if fundamentals drove the company's five-year performance.

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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).

Over half a decade, ARGO GRAPHICS managed to grow its earnings per share at 19% a year. The EPS growth is more impressive than the yearly share price gain of 14% over the same period. Therefore, it seems the market has become relatively pessimistic about the company.

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 ARGO GRAPHICS' earnings, revenue and cash flow is a great place to start, if you want to investigate the stock further.

What About Dividends?

As well as measuring the share price return, investors should also consider the total shareholder return (TSR). Whereas the share price return only reflects the change in the share price, the TSR includes the value of dividends (assuming they were reinvested) and the benefit of any discounted capital raising or spin-off. So for companies that pay a generous dividend, the TSR is often a lot higher than the share price return. In the case of ARGO GRAPHICS, it has a TSR of 113% for the last 5 years. That exceeds its share price return that we previously mentioned. And there's no prize for guessing that the dividend payments largely explain the divergence!

A Different Perspective

ARGO GRAPHICS' TSR for the year was broadly in line with the market average, at 24%. That gain looks pretty satisfying, and it is even better than the five-year TSR of 16% per year. Even if the share price growth slows down from here, there's a good chance that this is business worth watching in the long term. Is ARGO GRAPHICS cheap compared to other companies? These 3 valuation measures might help you decide.

For those who like to find winning investments this free list of undervalued 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 Japanese 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.