Siebert Financial (NASDAQ:SIEB) earnings and shareholder returns have been trending downwards for the last five years, but the stock surges 13% this past week

Siebert Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:SIEB) shareholders should be happy to see the share price up 13% in the last week. But that can't change the reality that over the longer term (five years), the returns have been really quite dismal. In fact, the share price has declined rather badly, down some 67% in that time. So we're hesitant to put much weight behind the short term increase. We'd err towards caution given the long term under-performance.

The recent uptick of 13% could be a positive sign of things to come, so let's take a look at historical fundamentals.

To paraphrase Benjamin Graham: Over the short term the market is a voting machine, but over the long term it's a weighing machine. One flawed but reasonable way to assess how sentiment around a company has changed is to compare the earnings per share (EPS) with the share price.

Looking back five years, both Siebert Financial's share price and EPS declined; the latter at a rate of 2.4% per year. Readers should note that the share price has fallen faster than the EPS, at a rate of 20% per year, over the period. This implies that the market was previously too optimistic about the stock. The low P/E ratio of 10.07 further reflects this reticence.

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

Before buying or selling a stock, we always recommend a close examination of historic growth trends, available here.

A Different Perspective

It's nice to see that Siebert Financial shareholders have received a total shareholder return of 35% over the last year. Notably the five-year annualised TSR loss of 11% per year compares very unfavourably with the recent share price performance. We generally put more weight on the long term performance over the short term, but the recent improvement could hint at a (positive) inflection point within the business. 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. Case in point: We've spotted 1 warning sign for Siebert Financial you should be aware of.

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.