It's understandable if you feel frustrated when a stock you own sees a lower share price. But sometimes a share price fall can have more to do with market conditions than the performance of the specific business. The B&M European Value Retail S.A. (LON:BME) is down 30% over a year, but the total shareholder return is -25% once you include the dividend. That's better than the market which declined 44% over the last year. The silver lining (for longer term investors) is that the stock is still 8.7% higher than it was three years ago. The falls have accelerated recently, with the share price down 28% in the last three months. Of course, this share price action may well have been influenced by the 31% decline in the broader market, throughout the period.

With that in mind, it's worth seeing if the company's underlying fundamentals have been the driver of long term performance, or if there are some discrepancies.

View our latest analysis for B&M European Value Retail

To paraphrase Benjamin Graham: Over the short term the market is a voting machine, but over the long term it's a weighing machine. 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).

Unfortunately B&M European Value Retail reported an EPS drop of 1.3% for the last year. The share price decline of 30% is actually more than the EPS drop. This suggests the EPS fall has made some shareholders are more nervous about the business. The less favorable sentiment is reflected in its current P/E ratio of 9.16.

You can see below how EPS has changed over time (discover the exact values by clicking on the image).

Dive deeper into B&M European Value Retail's key metrics by checking this interactive graph of B&M European Value Retail's earnings, revenue and cash flow.

What About Dividends?

When looking at investment returns, it is important to consider the difference between total shareholder return (TSR) and share price return. 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. So for companies that pay a generous dividend, the TSR is often a lot higher than the share price return. As it happens, B&M European Value Retail's TSR for the last 1 year was -25%, which exceeds the share price return mentioned earlier. This is largely a result of its dividend payments!

A Different Perspective

While it's certainly disappointing to see that B&M European Value Retail shares lost 25% throughout the year, that wasn't as bad as the market loss of 44%. Of course, the long term returns are far more important and the good news is that over five years, the stock has returned 9% 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. While it is well worth considering the different impacts that market conditions can have on the share price, there are other factors that are even more important. For instance, we've identified 3 warning signs for B&M European Value Retail (1 is a bit unpleasant) that you should be aware of.