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Investing in stocks inevitably means buying into some companies that perform poorly. But long term bpost SA/NV (EBR:BPOST) shareholders have had a particularly rough ride in the last three year. Sadly for them, the share price is down 64% in that time. The more recent news is of little comfort, with the share price down 44% in a year. On top of that, the share price has dropped a further 17% in a month.
View our latest analysis for bpost
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 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.
bpost saw its EPS decline at a compound rate of 6.5% per year, over the last three years. The share price decline of 29% is actually steeper than the EPS slippage. So it's likely that the EPS decline has disappointed the market, leaving investors hesitant to buy. This increased caution is also evident in the rather low P/E ratio, which is sitting at 6.53.
The image below shows how EPS has tracked over time (if you click on the image you can see greater detail).
This free interactive report on bpost'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. 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. It's fair to say that the TSR gives a more complete picture for stocks that pay a dividend. As it happens, bpost's TSR for the last 3 years was -57%, which exceeds the share price return mentioned earlier. This is largely a result of its dividend payments!
A Different Perspective
While the broader market lost about 5.5% in the twelve months, bpost shareholders did even worse, losing 37% (even including dividends). However, it could simply be that the share price has been impacted by broader market jitters. It might be worth keeping an eye on the fundamentals, in case there's a good opportunity. Regrettably, last year's performance caps off a bad run, with the shareholders facing a total loss of 10% 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. Before forming an opinion on bpost you might want to consider the cold hard cash it pays as a dividend. This free chart tracks its dividend over time.