The worst result, after buying shares in a company (assuming no leverage), would be if you lose all the money you put in. But on a lighter note, a good company can see its share price rise well over 100%. For example, the Constellation Software Inc. (TSE:CSU) share price has soared 251% in the last half decade. Most would be very happy with that. In more good news, the share price has risen 13% in thirty days. But the price may well have benefitted from a buoyant market, since stocks have gained 8.4% in the last thirty days.
So let’s assess the underlying fundamentals over the last 5 years and see if they’ve moved in lock-step with shareholder returns.
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While markets are a powerful pricing mechanism, share prices reflect investor sentiment, not just underlying business performance. One imperfect but simple way to consider how the market perception of a company has shifted is to compare the change in the earnings per share (EPS) with the share price movement.
During five years of share price growth, Constellation Software achieved compound earnings per share (EPS) growth of 17% per year. This EPS growth is slower than the share price growth of 29% per year, over the same period. So it’s fair to assume the market has a higher opinion of the business than it did five years ago. And that’s hardly shocking given the track record of growth. This favorable sentiment is reflected in its (fairly optimistic) P/E ratio of 106.32.
You can see below how EPS has changed over time (discover the exact values by clicking on the image).
It is of course excellent to see how Constellation Software has grown profits over the years, but the future is more important for shareholders. You can see how its balance sheet has strengthened (or weakened) over time in this free interactive graphic.
As well as measuring the share price return, investors should also consider the total shareholder return (TSR). The TSR is a return calculation that accounts for the value of cash dividends (assuming that any dividend received was reinvested) and the calculated value of any discounted capital raisings and spin-offs. It’s fair to say that the TSR gives a more complete picture for stocks that pay a dividend. As it happens, Constellation Software’s TSR for the last 5 years was 290%, which exceeds the share price return mentioned earlier. This is largely a result of its dividend payments!
