Willowglen MSC Berhad (KLSE:WILLOW) Shareholders Booked A 54% Gain In The Last Five Years

When we invest, we're generally looking for stocks that outperform the market average. And in our experience, buying the right stocks can give your wealth a significant boost. For example, the Willowglen MSC Berhad (KLSE:WILLOW) share price is up 54% in the last 5 years, clearly besting the market return of around -13% (ignoring dividends). On the other hand, the more recent gains haven't been so impressive, with shareholders gaining just 28% , including dividends .

View our latest analysis for Willowglen MSC Berhad

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...' 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).

Willowglen MSC Berhad's earnings per share are down 4.0% per year, despite strong share price performance over five years.

So it's hard to argue that the earnings per share are the best metric to judge the company, as it may not be optimized for profits at this point. Therefore, it's worth taking a look at other metrics to try to understand the share price movements.

We doubt the modest 1.7% dividend yield is attracting many buyers to the stock. On the other hand, Willowglen MSC Berhad's revenue is growing nicely, at a compound rate of 4.7% over the last five years. It's quite possible that management are prioritizing revenue growth over EPS growth at the moment.

The image below shows how earnings and revenue have tracked over time (if you click on the image you can see greater detail).

It's probably worth noting that the CEO is paid less than the median at similar sized companies. But while CEO remuneration is always worth checking, the really important question is whether the company can grow earnings going forward. It might be well worthwhile taking a look at our free report on Willowglen MSC Berhad's earnings, revenue and cash flow.

What About Dividends?

It is important to consider the total shareholder return, as well as the share price return, for any given stock. 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. We note that for Willowglen MSC Berhad the TSR over the last 5 years was 72%, which is better than the share price return mentioned above. The dividends paid by the company have thusly boosted the total shareholder return.

A Different Perspective

It's nice to see that Willowglen MSC Berhad shareholders have received a total shareholder return of 28% over the last year. And that does include the dividend. That gain is better than the annual TSR over five years, which is 11%. 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. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Willowglen MSC Berhad better, we need to consider many other factors. Be aware that Willowglen MSC Berhad is showing 3 warning signs in our investment analysis , and 1 of those is concerning...

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

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. 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. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.

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