Matrix Concepts Holdings Berhad's (KLSE:MATRIX) investors will be pleased with their impressive 101% return over the last five years

When we invest, we're generally looking for stocks that outperform the market average. And the truth is, you can make significant gains if you buy good quality businesses at the right price. To wit, the Matrix Concepts Holdings Berhad share price has climbed 49% in five years, easily topping the market return of 7.7% (ignoring dividends). However, more recent returns haven't been as impressive as that, with the stock returning just 45% in the last year, including dividends.

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 Matrix Concepts Holdings 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.

Over half a decade, Matrix Concepts Holdings Berhad managed to grow its earnings per share at 0.2% a year. This EPS growth is lower than the 8% average annual increase in the share price. So it's fair to assume the market has a higher opinion of the business than it did five years ago. That's not necessarily surprising considering the five-year track record of earnings growth.

You can see how EPS has changed over time in the image below (click on the chart to see the exact values).

earnings-per-share-growth
KLSE:MATRIX Earnings Per Share Growth July 17th 2024

It might be well worthwhile taking a look at our free report on Matrix Concepts Holdings Berhad's earnings, revenue and cash flow.

What About Dividends?

It is important to consider the total shareholder return, as well as the share price return, for any given stock. Whereas the share price return only reflects the change in the share price, the TSR includes the value of dividends (assuming they were reinvested) and the benefit of any discounted capital raising or spin-off. Arguably, the TSR gives a more comprehensive picture of the return generated by a stock. As it happens, Matrix Concepts Holdings Berhad's TSR for the last 5 years was 101%, 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

It's nice to see that Matrix Concepts Holdings Berhad shareholders have received a total shareholder return of 45% over the last year. That's including the dividend. Since the one-year TSR is better than the five-year TSR (the latter coming in at 15% per year), it would seem that the stock's performance has improved in recent times. Given the share price momentum remains strong, it might be worth taking a closer look at the stock, lest you miss an opportunity. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Matrix Concepts Holdings Berhad better, we need to consider many other factors. For example, we've discovered 1 warning sign for Matrix Concepts Holdings Berhad that you should be aware of before investing here.