Iktinos Hellas S.A. Greek Marble Industry Technical and Touristic Company (ATH:IKTIN) shareholders might be concerned after seeing the share price drop 18% in the last quarter. But over the last three years the stock has shone bright like a diamond. Indeed, the share price is up a whopping 341% in that time. Arguably, the recent fall is to be expected after such a strong rise. The thing to consider is whether there is still too much elation around the company's prospects.
View our latest analysis for Iktinos Hellas Greek Marble Industry Technical and Touristic
To quote Buffett, 'Ships will sail around the world but the Flat Earth Society will flourish. There will continue to be wide discrepancies between price and value in the marketplace...' One imperfect but simple way to consider how the market perception of a company has shifted is to compare the change in the earnings per share (EPS) with the share price movement.
During three years of share price growth, Iktinos Hellas Greek Marble Industry Technical and Touristic achieved compound earnings per share growth of 66% per year. Notably, the 64% average annual share price gain matches up nicely with the EPS growth rate. That suggests that the market sentiment around the company hasn't changed much over that time. Quite to the contrary, the share price has arguably reflected the EPS growth.
You can see how EPS has changed over time in the image below (click on the chart to see the exact values).
We know that Iktinos Hellas Greek Marble Industry Technical and Touristic has improved its bottom line over the last three years, but what does the future have in store? This free interactive report on Iktinos Hellas Greek Marble Industry Technical and Touristic's balance sheet strength is a great place to start, if you want to investigate the stock further.
What About Dividends?
As well as measuring the share price return, investors should also consider the total shareholder return (TSR). 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. In the case of Iktinos Hellas Greek Marble Industry Technical and Touristic, it has a TSR of 430% for the last 3 years. That exceeds its share price return that we previously mentioned. And there's no prize for guessing that the dividend payments largely explain the divergence!