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Investors can approximate the average market return by buying an index fund. But if you buy individual stocks, you can do both better or worse than that. That downside risk was realized by Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (AMS:URW) shareholders over the last year, as the share price declined 29%. That's well bellow the market return of 0.03%. Because Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield hasn't been listed for many years, the market is still learning about how the business performs. Unfortunately the share price momentum is still quite negative, with prices down 9.6% in thirty days. But this could be related to poor market conditions -- stocks are down 4.6% in the same time.
View our latest analysis for Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield
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. 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.
Unfortunately Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield reported an EPS drop of 66% for the last year. This fall in the EPS is significantly worse than the 29% the share price fall. So despite the weak per-share profits, some investors are probably relieved the situation wasn't more difficult.
You can see below how EPS has changed over time (discover the exact values by clicking on the image).
Before buying or selling a stock, we always recommend a close examination of historic growth trends, available here..
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 incorporates the value of any spin-offs or discounted capital raisings, along with any dividends, based on the assumption that the dividends are reinvested. Arguably, the TSR gives a more comprehensive picture of the return generated by a stock. As it happens, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield's TSR for the last year was -27%, 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
While Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield shareholders are down 27% for the year (even including dividends), the market itself is up 0.03%. While the aim is to do better than that, it's worth recalling that even great long-term investments sometimes underperform for a year or more. The share price decline has continued throughout the most recent three months, down 5.1%, suggesting an absence of enthusiasm from investors. Given the relatively short history of this stock, we'd remain pretty wary until we see some strong business performance. Before forming an opinion on Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield you might want to consider the cold hard cash it pays as a dividend. This free chart tracks its dividend over time.