While it may not be enough for some shareholders, we think it is good to see the Hartalega Holdings Berhad (KLSE:HARTA) share price up 17% in a single quarter. But the last three years have seen a terrible decline. To wit, the share price sky-dived 84% in that time. So it's about time shareholders saw some gains. Of course the real question is whether the business can sustain a turnaround. While a drop like that is definitely a body blow, money isn't as important as health and happiness.
So let's have a look and see if the longer term performance of the company has been in line with the underlying business' progress.
Check out our latest analysis for Hartalega Holdings Berhad
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.
Over the three years that the share price declined, Hartalega Holdings Berhad's earnings per share (EPS) dropped significantly, falling to a loss. Due to the loss, it's not easy to use EPS as a reliable guide to the business. However, we can say we'd expect to see a falling share price in this scenario.
You can see below how EPS has changed over time (discover the exact values by clicking on the image).
It's probably worth noting that the CEO is paid less than the median at similar sized companies. But while CEO remuneration is always worth checking, the really important question is whether the company can grow earnings going forward. Dive deeper into the earnings by checking this interactive graph of Hartalega Holdings Berhad's earnings, revenue and cash flow.
What About The Total Shareholder Return (TSR)?
We'd be remiss not to mention the difference between Hartalega Holdings Berhad's total shareholder return (TSR) and its share price return. Arguably the TSR is a more complete return calculation because it accounts for the value of dividends (as if they were reinvested), along with the hypothetical value of any discounted capital that have been offered to shareholders. Its history of dividend payouts mean that Hartalega Holdings Berhad's TSR, which was a 80% drop over the last 3 years, was not as bad as the share price return.
A Different Perspective
It's nice to see that Hartalega Holdings Berhad shareholders have received a total shareholder return of 21% over the last year. There's no doubt those recent returns are much better than the TSR loss of 9% per year over five years. The long term loss makes us cautious, but the short term TSR gain certainly hints at a brighter future. Shareholders might want to examine this detailed historical graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow.