Despite shrinking by US$153m in the past week, Verra Mobility (NASDAQ:VRRM) shareholders are still up 90% over 5 years

The simplest way to invest in stocks is to buy exchange traded funds. But you can do a lot better than that by buying good quality businesses for attractive prices. For example, the Verra Mobility Corporation (NASDAQ:VRRM) share price is up 90% in the last five years, slightly above the market return. It's also good to see a healthy gain of 39% in the last year.

While this past week has detracted from the company's five-year return, let's look at the recent trends of the underlying business and see if the gains have been in alignment.

View our latest analysis for Verra Mobility

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).

During the five years of share price growth, Verra Mobility moved from a loss to profitability. That would generally be considered a positive, so we'd hope to see the share price to rise.

The company's earnings per share (over time) is depicted in the image below (click to see the exact numbers).

We know that Verra Mobility has improved its bottom line over the last three years, but what does the future have in store? You can see how its balance sheet has strengthened (or weakened) over time in this free interactive graphic.

A Different Perspective

We're pleased to report that Verra Mobility shareholders have received a total shareholder return of 39% over one year. That gain is better than the annual TSR over five years, which is 14%. 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 Verra Mobility better, we need to consider many other factors. Take risks, for example - Verra Mobility has 2 warning signs (and 1 which is potentially serious) we think you should know about.

We will like Verra Mobility better if we see some big insider buys. While we wait, check out this free list of undervalued stocks (mostly small caps) with considerable, recent, insider buying.

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