These days it's easy to simply buy an index fund, and your returns should (roughly) match the market. But you can significantly boost your returns by picking above-average stocks. To wit, the Lim Seong Hai Capital Berhad (KLSE:LSH) share price is 47% higher than it was a year ago, much better than the market return of around 0.3% (not including dividends) in the same period. That's a solid performance by our standards! We'll need to follow Lim Seong Hai Capital Berhad for a while to get a better sense of its share price trend, since it hasn't been listed for particularly long.

So let's assess the underlying fundamentals over the last 1 year and see if they've moved in lock-step with shareholder returns.

View our latest analysis for Lim Seong Hai Capital Berhad

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 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.

Lim Seong Hai Capital Berhad was able to grow EPS by 278% in the last twelve months. This EPS growth is significantly higher than the 47% increase in the share price. Therefore, it seems the market isn't as excited about Lim Seong Hai Capital Berhad as it was before. This could be an opportunity.

The company's earnings per share (over time) is depicted in the image below (click to see the exact numbers).

Before buying or selling a stock, we always recommend a close examination of historic growth trends, available here.

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. Arguably, the TSR gives a more comprehensive picture of the return generated by a stock. We note that for Lim Seong Hai Capital Berhad the TSR over the last 1 year was 56%, which is better than the share price return mentioned above. This is largely a result of its dividend payments!

A Different Perspective

Lim Seong Hai Capital Berhad boasts a total shareholder return of 56% for the last year (that includes the dividends) . A substantial portion of that gain has come in the last three months, with the stock up 14% in that time. Demand for the stock from multiple parties is pushing the price higher; it could be that word is getting out about its virtues as a business. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Lim Seong Hai Capital Berhad better, we need to consider many other factors. Case in point: We've spotted 4 warning signs for Lim Seong Hai Capital Berhad you should be aware of, and 3 of them are a bit concerning.