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Ideally, your overall portfolio should beat the market average. But the main game is to find enough winners to more than offset the losers At this point some shareholders may be questioning their investment in Nordstrom, Inc. (NYSE:JWN), since the last five years saw the share price fall 52%. And some of the more recent buyers are probably worried, too, with the stock falling 36% in the last year. Shareholders have had an even rougher run lately, with the share price down 26% in the last 90 days. This could be related to the recent financial results - you can catch up on the most recent data by reading our company report.
View our latest analysis for Nordstrom
While the efficient markets hypothesis continues to be taught by some, it has been proven that markets are over-reactive dynamic systems, and investors are not always rational. 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).
Looking back five years, both Nordstrom's share price and EPS declined; the latter at a rate of 3.7% per year. Readers should note that the share price has fallen faster than the EPS, at a rate of 14% per year, over the period. This implies that the market is more cautious about the business these days. The less favorable sentiment is reflected in its current P/E ratio of 10.48.
You can see below how EPS has changed over time (discover the exact values by clicking on the image).
We know that Nordstrom has improved its bottom line lately, but is it going to grow revenue? Check if analysts think Nordstrom will grow revenue in the future.
What About Dividends?
It is important to consider the total shareholder return, as well as the share price return, for any given stock. 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. It's fair to say that the TSR gives a more complete picture for stocks that pay a dividend. In the case of Nordstrom, it has a TSR of -41% for the last 5 years. That exceeds its share price return that we previously mentioned. This is largely a result of its dividend payments!
A Different Perspective
Investors in Nordstrom had a tough year, with a total loss of 34% (including dividends), against a market gain of about 3.1%. Even the share prices of good stocks drop sometimes, but we want to see improvements in the fundamental metrics of a business, before getting too interested. Regrettably, last year's performance caps off a bad run, with the shareholders facing a total loss of 9.9% per year over five years. Generally speaking long term share price weakness can be a bad sign, though contrarian investors might want to research the stock in hope of a turnaround. If you would like to research Nordstrom in more detail then you might want to take a look at whether insiders have been buying or selling shares in the company.