Stock pickers are generally looking for stocks that will outperform the broader market. Buying under-rated businesses is one path to excess returns. To wit, the B.P. Marsh & Partners share price has climbed 64% in five years, easily topping the market decline of 15% (ignoring dividends).

Check out our latest analysis for B.P. Marsh & Partners

While the efficient markets hypothesis continues to be taught by some, it has been proven that markets are over-reactive dynamic systems, and investors are not always rational. 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).

Over half a decade, B.P. Marsh & Partners managed to grow its earnings per share at 11% a year. That makes the EPS growth particularly close to the yearly share price growth of 10%. That suggests that the market sentiment around the company hasn't changed much over that time. Indeed, it would appear the share price is reacting to the EPS.

The image below shows how EPS has tracked over time (if you click on the image you can see greater detail).

We consider it positive that insiders have made significant purchases in the last year. 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 B.P. Marsh & Partners' earnings, revenue and cash flow.

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. We note that for B.P. Marsh & Partners the TSR over the last 5 years was 78%, which is better than the share price return mentioned above. The dividends paid by the company have thusly boosted the total shareholder return.

A Different Perspective

Although it hurts that B.P. Marsh & Partners returned a loss of 7.2% in the last twelve months, the broader market was actually worse, returning a loss of 17%. Of course, the long term returns are far more important and the good news is that over five years, the stock has returned 12% for each year. It could be that the business is just facing some short term problems, but shareholders should keep a close eye on the fundamentals. Investors who like to make money usually check up on insider purchases, such as the price paid, and total amount bought. You can find out about the insider purchases of B.P. Marsh & Partners by clicking this link.