Shareholders of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Must Be Delighted With Their 476% Total Return

For many, the main point of investing in the stock market is to achieve spectacular returns. And highest quality companies can see their share prices grow by huge amounts. Just think about the savvy investors who held Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) shares for the last five years, while they gained 431%. This just goes to show the value creation that some businesses can achieve. Also pleasing for shareholders was the 15% gain in the last three months. But this could be related to the strong market, which is up 6.9% in the last three months.

View our latest analysis for Microsoft

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

During five years of share price growth, Microsoft achieved compound earnings per share (EPS) growth of 41% per year. This EPS growth is remarkably close to the 40% average annual increase in the share price. That suggests that the market sentiment around the company hasn't changed much over that time. In fact, the share price seems to largely reflect the EPS growth.

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

We like that insiders have been buying shares in the last twelve months. Having said that, most people consider earnings and revenue growth trends to be a more meaningful guide to the business. Dive deeper into the earnings by checking this interactive graph of Microsoft's earnings, revenue and cash flow.

What About Dividends?

It is important to consider the total shareholder return, as well as the share price return, for any given stock. Whereas the share price return only reflects the change in the share price, the TSR includes the value of dividends (assuming they were reinvested) and the benefit of any discounted capital raising or spin-off. So for companies that pay a generous dividend, the TSR is often a lot higher than the share price return. As it happens, Microsoft's TSR for the last 5 years was 476%, which exceeds the share price return mentioned earlier. This is largely a result of its dividend payments!

A Different Perspective

Microsoft shareholders gained a total return of 36% during the year. Unfortunately this falls short of the market return. On the bright side, the longer term returns (running at about 42% a year, over half a decade) look better. Maybe the share price is just taking a breather while the business executes on its growth strategy. 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. For instance, we've identified 2 warning signs for Microsoft that you should be aware of.

Microsoft is not the only stock that insiders are buying. For those who like to find winning investments this free list of growing 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 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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