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Uni-Asia Group Limited (SGX:CHJ) shareholders should be happy to see the share price up 11% in the last month. But that doesn't change the fact that the returns over the last year have been less than pleasing. After all, the share price is down 14% in the last year, significantly under-performing the market.
See our latest analysis for Uni-Asia Group
While markets are a powerful pricing mechanism, share prices reflect investor sentiment, not just underlying business performance. 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.
Unhappily, Uni-Asia Group had to report a 79% decline in EPS over the last year. The share price fall of 14% isn't as bad as the reduction in earnings per share. It may have been that the weak EPS was not as bad as some had feared.
The company's earnings per share (over time) is depicted in the image below (click to see the exact numbers).
We like that insiders have been buying shares in the last twelve months. Having said that, most people consider earnings and revenue growth trends to be a more meaningful guide to the business. This free interactive report on Uni-Asia Group's earnings, revenue and cash flow is a great place to start, if you want to investigate the stock further.
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 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. In the case of Uni-Asia Group, it has a TSR of -8.4% for the last year. That exceeds its share price return that we previously mentioned. And there's no prize for guessing that the dividend payments largely explain the divergence!
A Different Perspective
We doubt Uni-Asia Group shareholders are happy with the loss of 8.4% over twelve months (even including dividends). That falls short of the market, which lost 3.0%. There's no doubt that's a disappointment, but the stock may well have fared better in a stronger market. It's worth noting that the last three months did the real damage, with a 8.5% decline. This probably signals that the business has recently disappointed shareholders - it will take time to win them back. It is all well and good that insiders have been buying shares, but we suggest you check here to see what price insiders were buying at.