If You Had Bought MiCo (KOSDAQ:059090) Shares Five Years Ago You'd Have Earned 502% Returns

We think all investors should try to buy and hold high quality multi-year winners. While not every stock performs well, when investors win, they can win big. Don't believe it? Then look at the MiCo Ltd. (KOSDAQ:059090) share price. It's 502% higher than it was five years ago. If that doesn't get you thinking about long term investing, we don't know what will. Meanwhile the share price is 1.0% higher than it was a week ago.

It really delights us to see such great share price performance for investors.

View our latest analysis for MiCo

There is no denying that markets are sometimes efficient, but prices do not always reflect underlying business performance. 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.

MiCo's earnings per share are down 5.8% per year, despite strong share price performance over five years.

Essentially, it doesn't seem likely that investors are focused on EPS. Because earnings per share don't seem to match up with the share price, we'll take a look at other metrics instead.

We doubt the modest 0.3% dividend yield is attracting many buyers to the stock. In contrast revenue growth of 17% per year is probably viewed as evidence that MiCo is growing, a real positive. It's quite possible that management are prioritizing revenue growth over EPS growth at the moment.

The graphic below depicts how earnings and revenue have changed over time (unveil the exact values by clicking on the image).

You can see how its balance sheet has strengthened (or weakened) over time in this free interactive graphic.

What About Dividends?

When looking at investment returns, it is important to consider the difference between total shareholder return (TSR) and share price return. 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 MiCo, it has a TSR of 512% 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

It's good to see that MiCo has rewarded shareholders with a total shareholder return of 200% in the last twelve months. Of course, that includes the dividend. That gain is better than the annual TSR over five years, which is 44%. Therefore it seems like sentiment around the company has been positive lately. In the best case scenario, this may hint at some real business momentum, implying that now could be a great time to delve deeper. I find it very interesting to look at share price over the long term as a proxy for business performance. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too. To that end, you should be aware of the 2 warning signs we've spotted with MiCo .

Of course MiCo 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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