As Computer Engineering & Consulting (TSE:9692) soars 11% this past week, investors may now be noticing the company's five-year earnings growth

It's nice to see the Computer Engineering & Consulting Ltd. (TSE:9692) share price up 11% in a week. But that doesn't change the fact that the returns over the last five years have been less than pleasing. In fact, the share price is down 28%, which falls well short of the return you could get by buying an index fund.

While the last five years has been tough for Computer Engineering & Consulting shareholders, this past week has shown signs of promise. So let's look at the longer term fundamentals and see if they've been the driver of the negative returns.

Check out our latest analysis for Computer Engineering & Consulting

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).

While the share price declined over five years, Computer Engineering & Consulting actually managed to increase EPS by an average of 9.1% per year. So it doesn't seem like EPS is a great guide to understanding how the market is valuing the stock. Alternatively, growth expectations may have been unreasonable in the past.

Due to the lack of correlation between the EPS growth and the falling share price, it's worth taking a look at other metrics to try to understand the share price movement.

Revenue is actually up 0.4% over the time period. So it seems one might have to take closer look at the fundamentals to understand why the share price languishes. After all, there may be an opportunity.

You can see below how earnings and revenue have changed over time (discover the exact values by clicking on the image).

If you are thinking of buying or selling Computer Engineering & Consulting stock, you should check out this FREE detailed report on its balance sheet.

What About Dividends?

It is important to consider the total shareholder return, as well as the share price return, for any given stock. 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. Arguably, the TSR gives a more comprehensive picture of the return generated by a stock. In the case of Computer Engineering & Consulting, it has a TSR of -16% for the last 5 years. That exceeds its share price return that we previously mentioned. This is largely a result of its dividend payments!

A Different Perspective

We're pleased to report that Computer Engineering & Consulting shareholders have received a total shareholder return of 9.4% over one year. That's including the dividend. There's no doubt those recent returns are much better than the TSR loss of 3% per year over five years. The long term loss makes us cautious, but the short term TSR gain certainly hints at a brighter future. Importantly, we haven't analysed Computer Engineering & Consulting's dividend history. This free visual report on its dividends is a must-read if you're thinking of buying.

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.