Generally speaking the aim of active stock picking is to find companies that provide returns that are superior to the market average. And in our experience, buying the right stocks can give your wealth a significant boost. For example, the Century Textiles and Industries Limited (NSE:CENTURYTEX) share price is up 75% in the last 5 years, clearly besting the market return of around 28% (ignoring dividends). On the other hand, the more recent gains haven't been so impressive, with shareholders gaining just 20% , including dividends .
View our latest analysis for Century Textiles and Industries
While markets are a powerful pricing mechanism, share prices reflect investor sentiment, not just underlying business performance. 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).
During the last half decade, Century Textiles and Industries became profitable. That would generally be considered a positive, so we'd expect the share price to be up.
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 Century Textiles and Industries has grown profits over the years, but the future is more important for shareholders. If you are thinking of buying or selling Century Textiles and Industries stock, you should check out this FREE detailed report on its balance sheet.
What About Dividends?
As well as measuring the share price return, investors should also consider the total shareholder return (TSR). 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. In the case of Century Textiles and Industries, it has a TSR of 82% for the last 5 years. That exceeds its share price return that we previously mentioned. The dividends paid by the company have thusly boosted the total shareholder return.
A Different Perspective
We're pleased to report that Century Textiles and Industries shareholders have received a total shareholder return of 20% over one year. Of course, that includes the dividend. That's better than the annualised return of 13% over half a decade, implying that the company is doing better recently. 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 Century Textiles and Industries scores on these 3 valuation metrics.