By buying an index fund, investors can approximate the average market return. But if you pick the right individual stocks, you could make more than that. Just take a look at Mountview Estates P.L.C. (LON:MTVW), which is up 29%, over three years, soundly beating the market decline of 7.6% (not including dividends). On the other hand, the returns haven't been quite so good recently, with shareholders up just 3.2% , including dividends .

So let's investigate and see if the longer term performance of the company has been in line with the underlying business' progress.

Check out our latest analysis for Mountview Estates

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 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).

During the three years of share price growth, Mountview Estates actually saw its earnings per share (EPS) drop 1.4% per year.

Given the share price resilience, we don't think the (declining) EPS numbers are a good measure of how the business is moving forward, right now. So other metrics may hold the key to understanding what is influencing investors.

We severely doubt anyone is particularly impressed with the modest 2.6% three-year revenue growth rate. So truth be told we can't see an easy explanation for the share price action, but perhaps you can...

You can see how earnings and revenue have changed over time in the image below (click on the chart to see the exact values).

If you are thinking of buying or selling Mountview Estates stock, you should check out this FREE detailed report on its balance sheet.

What About Dividends?

As well as measuring the share price return, investors should also consider the total shareholder return (TSR). 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. So for companies that pay a generous dividend, the TSR is often a lot higher than the share price return. We note that for Mountview Estates the TSR over the last 3 years was 46%, which is better than the share price return mentioned above. The dividends paid by the company have thusly boosted the total shareholder return.

A Different Perspective

It's good to see that Mountview Estates has rewarded shareholders with a total shareholder return of 3.2% in the last twelve months. And that does include the dividend. However, the TSR over five years, coming in at 6% per year, is even more impressive. Potential buyers might understandably feel they've missed the opportunity, but it's always possible business is still firing on all cylinders. I find it very interesting to look at share price over the long term as a proxy for business performance. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too. Even so, be aware that Mountview Estates is showing 1 warning sign in our investment analysis , you should know about...