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The worst result, after buying shares in a company (assuming no leverage), would be if you lose all the money you put in. But on a lighter note, a good company can see its share price rise well over 100%. For example, the Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Corporation Limited (NZSE:FPH) share price has soared 286% in the last half decade. Most would be very happy with that. Also pleasing for shareholders was the 20% gain in the last three months.
See our latest analysis for Fisher & Paykel Healthcare
To quote Buffett, 'Ships will sail around the world but the Flat Earth Society will flourish. There will continue to be wide discrepancies between price and value in the marketplace...' 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.
During five years of share price growth, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare achieved compound earnings per share (EPS) growth of 17% per year. This EPS growth is lower than the 31% average annual increase in the share price. This suggests that market participants hold the company in higher regard, these days. That's not necessarily surprising considering the five-year track record of earnings growth.
The image below shows how EPS has tracked over time (if you click on the image you can see greater detail).
We consider it positive that insiders have made significant purchases in the last year. Having said that, most people consider earnings and revenue growth trends to be a more meaningful guide to the business. Dive deeper into the earnings by checking this interactive graph of Fisher & Paykel Healthcare's earnings, revenue and cash flow.
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. So for companies that pay a generous dividend, the TSR is often a lot higher than the share price return. As it happens, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare's TSR for the last 5 years was 332%, which exceeds the share price return mentioned earlier. This is largely a result of its dividend payments!
A Different Perspective
It's nice to see that Fisher & Paykel Healthcare shareholders have received a total shareholder return of 26% over the last year. Of course, that includes the dividend. However, that falls short of the 34% TSR per annum it has made for shareholders, each year, over five years. 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.