Did You Miss POSCO's (KRX:005490) 100% Share Price Gain?

One way to deal with stock volatility is to ensure you have a properly diverse portfolio. But if you're going to beat the market overall, you need to have individual stocks that outperform. One such company is POSCO (KRX:005490), which saw its share price increase 100% in the last year, slightly above the market return of around 96% (not including dividends). In contrast, the longer term returns are negative, since the share price is 10% lower than it was three years ago.

View our latest analysis for POSCO

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...' 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.

Over the last twelve months, POSCO actually shrank its EPS by 11%.

So we don't think that investors are paying too much attention to EPS. 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.

POSCO's revenue actually dropped 10% over last year. So using a snapshot of key business metrics doesn't give us a good picture of why the market is bidding up the stock.

The company's revenue and earnings (over time) are depicted in the image below (click to see the exact numbers).

POSCO is well known by investors, and plenty of clever analysts have tried to predict the future profit levels. If you are thinking of buying or selling POSCO stock, you should check out this free report showing analyst consensus estimates for future profits.

What About Dividends?

As well as measuring the share price return, investors should also consider the total shareholder return (TSR). 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. So for companies that pay a generous dividend, the TSR is often a lot higher than the share price return. In the case of POSCO, it has a TSR of 107% for the last year. 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

POSCO provided a TSR of 107% over the year (including dividends). That's fairly close to the broader market return. That gain looks pretty satisfying, and it is even better than the five-year TSR of 10% 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. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand POSCO better, we need to consider many other factors. Take risks, for example - POSCO has 2 warning signs we think you should be aware of.

Of course POSCO may not be the best stock to buy. So you may wish to see this free collection of growth stocks.

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