Does SciPlay's (NASDAQ:SCPL) Share Price Gain of 53% Match Its Business Performance?

If you want to compound wealth in the stock market, you can do so by buying an index fund. But investors can boost returns by picking market-beating companies to own shares in. To wit, the SciPlay Corporation (NASDAQ:SCPL) share price is 53% higher than it was a year ago, much better than the market return of around 24% (not including dividends) in the same period. That's a solid performance by our standards! We'll need to follow SciPlay for a while to get a better sense of its share price trend, since it hasn't been listed for particularly long.

View our latest analysis for SciPlay

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.

SciPlay was able to grow EPS by 56% in the last twelve months. We note that the earnings per share growth isn't far from the share price growth (of 53%). That suggests that the market sentiment around the company hasn't changed much over that time. It makes intuitive sense that the share price and EPS would grow at similar rates.

The graphic below depicts how EPS has changed over time (unveil the exact values by clicking on the image).

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. 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 SciPlay shareholders have gained 53% over the last year. A substantial portion of that gain has come in the last three months, with the stock up 19% in that time. This suggests the company is continuing to win over new investors. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand SciPlay better, we need to consider many other factors. For instance, we've identified 1 warning sign for SciPlay that you should be aware of.

There are plenty of other companies that have insiders buying up shares. You probably do not want to miss this free list of growing companies that insiders are buying.

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

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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. 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.
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