The simplest way to invest in stocks is to buy exchange traded funds. But you can significantly boost your returns by picking above-average stocks. To wit, the Pacific Millennium Packaging Group Corporation (HKG:1820) share price is 17% higher than it was a year ago, much better than the market return of around -4.4% (not including dividends) in the same period. If it can keep that out-performance up over the long term, investors will do very well! We'll need to follow Pacific Millennium Packaging Group for a while to get a better sense of its share price trend, since it hasn't been listed for particularly long.

Check out our latest analysis for Pacific Millennium Packaging Group

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 year, Pacific Millennium Packaging Group actually saw its earnings per share drop 20%.

This means it's unlikely the market is judging the company based on earnings growth. Therefore, it seems likely that investors are putting more weight on metrics other than EPS, at the moment.

Absent any improvement, we don't think a thirst for dividends is pushing up the Pacific Millennium Packaging Group's share price. It seems far more likely that the 13% boost to the revenue over the last year, is making the difference. Revenue growth often does precede earnings growth, so some investors might be willing to forgo profits today because they have their eyes fixed firmly on the future.

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

If you are thinking of buying or selling Pacific Millennium Packaging Group 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). The TSR incorporates the value of any spin-offs or discounted capital raisings, along with any dividends, based on the assumption that the dividends are reinvested. It's fair to say that the TSR gives a more complete picture for stocks that pay a dividend. As it happens, Pacific Millennium Packaging Group's TSR for the last year was 32%, which exceeds the share price return mentioned earlier. The dividends paid by the company have thusly boosted the total shareholder return.