M/I Homes' (NYSE:MHO) five-year earnings growth trails the 35% YoY shareholder returns

Buying shares in the best businesses can build meaningful wealth for you and your family. While not every stock performs well, when investors win, they can win big. Just think about the savvy investors who held M/I Homes, Inc. (NYSE:MHO) shares for the last five years, while they gained 355%. And this is just one example of the epic gains achieved by some long term investors. It's also good to see the share price up 32% over the last quarter. This could be related to the recent financial results, released recently - you can catch up on the most recent data by reading our company report.

Since it's been a strong week for M/I Homes shareholders, let's have a look at trend of the longer term fundamentals.

View our latest analysis for M/I Homes

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 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.

Over half a decade, M/I Homes managed to grow its earnings per share at 37% a year. So the EPS growth rate is rather close to the annualized share price gain of 35% per year. Therefore one could conclude that sentiment towards the shares hasn't morphed very much. Indeed, it would appear the share price is reacting to the EPS.

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

It might be well worthwhile taking a look at our free report on M/I Homes' earnings, revenue and cash flow.

A Different Perspective

It's good to see that M/I Homes has rewarded shareholders with a total shareholder return of 78% in the last twelve months. That gain is better than the annual TSR over five years, which is 35%. 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. Before spending more time on M/I Homes it might be wise to click here to see if insiders have been buying or selling shares.

If you would prefer to check out another company -- one with potentially superior financials -- then do not miss this free list of companies that have proven they can grow earnings.

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.