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The last three months have been tough on Maxim Power Corp. (TSE:MXG) shareholders, who have seen the share price decline a rather worrying 37%. On the bright side the share price is up over the last half decade. However we are not very impressed because the share price is only up 93%, less than the market return of 101%.
So let's investigate and see if the longer term performance of the company has been in line with the underlying business' progress.
There is no denying that markets are sometimes efficient, but prices do not always reflect underlying business performance. By comparing earnings per share (EPS) and share price changes over time, we can get a feel for how investor attitudes to a company have morphed over time.
During the last half decade, Maxim Power became profitable. That would generally be considered a positive, so we'd hope to see the share price to rise.
The graphic below depicts how EPS has changed over time (unveil the exact values by clicking on the image).
This free interactive report on Maxim Power's earnings, revenue and cash flow is a great place to start, if you want to investigate the stock further.
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. Arguably, the TSR gives a more comprehensive picture of the return generated by a stock. As it happens, Maxim Power's TSR for the last 5 years was 113%, which exceeds the share price return mentioned earlier. And there's no prize for guessing that the dividend payments largely explain the divergence!
A Different Perspective
While the broader market gained around 13% in the last year, Maxim Power shareholders lost 11% (even including dividends). However, keep in mind that even the best stocks will sometimes underperform the market over a twelve month period. Longer term investors wouldn't be so upset, since they would have made 16%, each year, over five years. If the fundamental data continues to indicate long term sustainable growth, the current sell-off could be an opportunity worth considering. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Maxim Power better, we need to consider many other factors. Consider risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 3 warning signs for Maxim Power you should know about.