Reflecting on Bank of Valletta's (MTSE:BOV) Share Price Returns Over The Last Five Years

Bank of Valletta p.l.c. (MTSE:BOV) shareholders should be happy to see the share price up 13% in the last quarter. But that doesn't change the fact that the returns over the last five years have been less than pleasing. After all, the share price is down 47% in that time, significantly under-performing the market.

Check out our latest analysis for Bank of Valletta

There is no denying that markets are sometimes efficient, but prices do not always reflect underlying business performance. One imperfect but simple way to consider how the market perception of a company has shifted is to compare the change in the earnings per share (EPS) with the share price movement.

Looking back five years, both Bank of Valletta's share price and EPS declined; the latter at a rate of 18% per year. This fall in the EPS is worse than the 12% compound annual share price fall. The relatively muted share price reaction might be because the market expects the business to turn around.

You can see below how EPS has changed over time (discover the exact values by clicking on the image).

This free interactive report on Bank of Valletta's earnings, revenue and cash flow is a great place to start, if you want to investigate the stock further.

What About Dividends?

When looking at investment returns, it is important to consider the difference between total shareholder return (TSR) and share price return. 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. It's fair to say that the TSR gives a more complete picture for stocks that pay a dividend. In the case of Bank of Valletta, it has a TSR of -38% 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

Although it hurts that Bank of Valletta returned a loss of 7.5% in the last twelve months, the broader market was actually worse, returning a loss of 11%. What is more upsetting is the 7% per annum loss investors have suffered over the last half decade. This sort of share price action isn't particularly encouraging, but at least the losses are slowing. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Bank of Valletta better, we need to consider many other factors. For example, we've discovered 3 warning signs for Bank of Valletta (1 is significant!) that you should be aware of before investing here.

Of course Bank of Valletta 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 MT 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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