Despite lower earnings than five years ago, Hilton Grand Vacations (NYSE:HGV) investors are up 22% since then

The main point of investing for the long term is to make money. Better yet, you'd like to see the share price move up more than the market average. Unfortunately for shareholders, while the Hilton Grand Vacations Inc. (NYSE:HGV) share price is up 22% in the last five years, that's less than the market return. Over the last twelve months the stock price has risen a very respectable 13%.

While the stock has fallen 4.2% this week, it's worth focusing on the longer term and seeing if the stocks historical returns have been driven by the underlying fundamentals.

See our latest analysis for Hilton Grand Vacations

While markets are a powerful pricing mechanism, share prices reflect investor sentiment, not just 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.

During the last half decade, Hilton Grand Vacations became profitable. That's generally thought to be a genuine positive, so investors may expect to see an increasing share price.

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

We consider it positive that insiders have made significant purchases in the last year. Even so, future earnings will be far more important to whether current shareholders make money. This free interactive report on Hilton Grand Vacations' earnings, revenue and cash flow is a great place to start, if you want to investigate the stock further.

A Different Perspective

Hilton Grand Vacations shareholders are up 13% for the year. But that return falls short of the market. The silver lining is that the gain was actually better than the average annual return of 4% per year over five year. This suggests the company might be improving over time. 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. Even so, be aware that Hilton Grand Vacations is showing 4 warning signs in our investment analysis , and 1 of those is a bit unpleasant...

If you like to buy stocks alongside management, then you might just love this free list of companies. (Hint: most of them are flying under the radar).

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.