The most you can lose on any stock (assuming you don’t use leverage) is 100% of your money. But on the bright side, you can make far more than 100% on a really good stock. One great example is Shenzhen Expressway Company Limited (HKG:548) which saw its share price drive 153% higher over five years. Also pleasing for shareholders was the 15% gain in the last three months. But this could be related to the strong market, which is up 8.4% in the last three months.

See our latest analysis for Shenzhen Expressway

In his essay The Superinvestors of Graham-and-Doddsville Warren Buffett described how share prices do not always rationally reflect the value of a business. By comparing earnings per share (EPS) and share price changes over time, we can get a feel for how investor attitudes to a company have morphed over time.

Over half a decade, Shenzhen Expressway managed to grow its earnings per share at 19% a year. This EPS growth is reasonably close to the 20% average annual increase in the share price. This indicates that investor sentiment towards the company has not changed a great deal. In fact, the share price seems to largely reflect the EPS growth.

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

We know that Shenzhen Expressway has improved its bottom line lately, but is it going to grow revenue? Check if analysts think Shenzhen Expressway will grow revenue in the future.

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. Arguably, the TSR gives a more comprehensive picture of the return generated by a stock. As it happens, Shenzhen Expressway’s TSR for the last 5 years was 216%, 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 Shenzhen Expressway shareholders have received a total shareholder return of 18% over the last year. And that does include the dividend. However, that falls short of the 26% TSR per annum it has made for shareholders, each year, over five years. Importantly, we haven’t analysed Shenzhen Expressway’s dividend history. This free visual report on its dividends is a must-read if you’re thinking of buying.