Jones Lang LaSalle (NYSE:JLL) investors are up 4.7% in the past week, but earnings have declined over the last five years

If you want to compound wealth in the stock market, you can do so by buying an index fund. But you can do a lot better than that by buying good quality businesses for attractive prices. For example, the Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated (NYSE:JLL) share price is up 89% in the last five years, slightly above the market return. We're also happy to report the stock is up a healthy 81% in the last year.

After a strong gain in the past week, it's worth seeing if longer term returns have been driven by improving fundamentals.

See our latest analysis for Jones Lang LaSalle

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 way to examine how market sentiment has changed over time is to look at the interaction between a company's share price and its earnings per share (EPS).

Jones Lang LaSalle's earnings per share are down 4.7% per year, despite strong share price performance over five years.

So it's hard to argue that the earnings per share are the best metric to judge the company, as it may not be optimized for profits at this point. Since the change in EPS doesn't seem to correlate with the change in share price, it's worth taking a look at other metrics.

On the other hand, Jones Lang LaSalle's revenue is growing nicely, at a compound rate of 18% over the last five years. In that case, the company may be sacrificing current earnings per share to drive growth.

The image below shows how earnings and revenue have tracked over time (if you click on the image you can see greater detail).

We know that Jones Lang LaSalle has improved its bottom line lately, but what does the future have in store? If you are thinking of buying or selling Jones Lang LaSalle stock, you should check out this free report showing analyst profit forecasts.

A Different Perspective

It's good to see that Jones Lang LaSalle has rewarded shareholders with a total shareholder return of 81% in the last twelve months. Since the one-year TSR is better than the five-year TSR (the latter coming in at 14% per year), it would seem that the stock's performance has improved in recent times. 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 deciding if you like the current share price, check how Jones Lang LaSalle scores on these 3 valuation metrics.

For those who like to find winning investments this free list of undervalued companies with recent insider purchasing, could be just the ticket.

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.