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The Rand Mining Limited (ASX:RND) share price has had a bad week, falling 12%. But looking back over the last year, the returns have actually been rather pleasing! To wit, it had solidly beat the market, up 52%.
Although Rand Mining has shed AU$15m from its market cap this week, let's take a look at its longer term fundamental trends and see if they've driven returns.
View our latest analysis for Rand Mining
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 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.
During the last year, Rand Mining actually saw its earnings per share drop 19%.
Given the share price gain, we doubt the market is measuring progress with EPS. Therefore, it seems likely that investors are putting more weight on metrics other than EPS, at the moment.
We haven't seen Rand Mining increase dividend payments yet, so the yield probably hasn't helped drive the share higher. Rather, we'd posit that the revenue increase of 15% might be more meaningful. After all, it's not necessarily a bad thing if a business sacrifices profits today in pursuit of profit tomorrow (metaphorically speaking).
You can see how earnings and revenue have changed over time in the image below (click on the chart to see the exact values).
We're pleased to report that the CEO is remunerated more modestly than most CEOs at similarly capitalized companies. But while CEO remuneration is always worth checking, the really important question is whether the company can grow earnings going forward. This free interactive report on Rand Mining'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. It's fair to say that the TSR gives a more complete picture for stocks that pay a dividend. We note that for Rand Mining the TSR over the last 1 year was 59%, which is better than the share price return mentioned above. This is largely a result of its dividend payments!