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While it may not be enough for some shareholders, we think it is good to see the Nordstrom, Inc. (NYSE:JWN) share price up 29% in a single quarter. But that is little comfort to those holding over the last half decade, sitting on a big loss. In fact, the share price has declined rather badly, down some 59% in that time. Some might say the recent bounce is to be expected after such a bad drop. But it could be that the fall was overdone.
While the stock has risen 9.7% in the past week but long term shareholders are still in the red, let's see what the fundamentals can tell us.
View our latest analysis for Nordstrom
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 flawed but reasonable way to assess how sentiment around a company has changed is to compare the earnings per share (EPS) with the share price.
Nordstrom became profitable within the last five years. Most would consider that to be a good thing, so it's counter-intuitive to see the share price declining. Other metrics may better explain the share price move.
The most recent dividend was actually lower than it was in the past, so that may have sent the share price lower. The revenue decline of around 0.2% would not have helped the stock price. So the the weak dividend and revenue data could well help explain the soft share price.
The image below shows how earnings and revenue have tracked over time (if you click on the image you can see greater detail).
We're pleased to report that the CEO is remunerated more modestly than most CEOs at similarly capitalized companies. It's always worth keeping an eye on CEO pay, but a more important question is whether the company will grow earnings throughout the years. If you are thinking of buying or selling Nordstrom stock, you should check out this free report showing analyst profit forecasts.
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. So for companies that pay a generous dividend, the TSR is often a lot higher than the share price return. As it happens, Nordstrom's TSR for the last 5 years was -53%, which exceeds the share price return mentioned earlier. The dividends paid by the company have thusly boosted the total shareholder return.