Corcept Therapeutics' (NASDAQ:CORT) five-year total shareholder returns outpace the underlying earnings growth

We think all investors should try to buy and hold high quality multi-year winners. And we've seen some truly amazing gains over the years. For example, the Corcept Therapeutics Incorporated (NASDAQ:CORT) share price is up a whopping 383% in the last half decade, a handsome return for long term holders. If that doesn't get you thinking about long term investing, we don't know what will. Unfortunately, though, the stock has dropped 8.1% over a week. It may be that the recent financial results disappointed, so check out the latest revenue and profit numbers on in our company report.'

While the stock has fallen 8.1% this week, it's worth focusing on the longer term and seeing if the stocks historical returns have been driven by the underlying fundamentals.

Check out our latest analysis for Corcept Therapeutics

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 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.

Over half a decade, Corcept Therapeutics managed to grow its earnings per share at 10% a year. This EPS growth is lower than the 37% average annual increase in the share price. This suggests that market participants hold the company in higher regard, these days. That's not necessarily surprising considering the five-year track record of earnings growth.

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

We know that Corcept Therapeutics has improved its bottom line lately, but is it going to grow revenue? If you're interested, you could check this free report showing consensus revenue forecasts.

A Different Perspective

It's nice to see that Corcept Therapeutics shareholders have received a total shareholder return of 155% over the last year. That's better than the annualised return of 37% over half a decade, implying that the company is doing better recently. Someone with an optimistic perspective could view the recent improvement in TSR as indicating that the business itself is getting better with time. Before spending more time on Corcept Therapeutics it might be wise to click here to see if insiders have been buying or selling shares.

But note: Corcept Therapeutics may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies with past earnings growth (and further growth forecast).

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.