In This Article:
The most you can lose on any stock (assuming you don't use leverage) is 100% of your money. But on the bright side, if you buy shares in a high quality company at the right price, you can gain well over 100%. One great example is SpareBank 1 Østfold Akershus (OB:SOAG) which saw its share price drive 113% higher over five years.
See our latest analysis for SpareBank 1 Østfold Akershus
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.
Over half a decade, SpareBank 1 Østfold Akershus managed to grow its earnings per share at 7.9% a year. This EPS growth is slower than the share price growth of 16% per year, over the same period. This suggests that market participants hold the company in higher regard, these days. And that's hardly shocking given the track record of growth.
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 SpareBank 1 Østfold Akershus'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. 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. Arguably, the TSR gives a more comprehensive picture of the return generated by a stock. We note that for SpareBank 1 Østfold Akershus the TSR over the last 5 years was 166%, which is better than the share price return mentioned above. The dividends paid by the company have thusly boosted the total shareholder return.
A Different Perspective
It's good to see that SpareBank 1 Østfold Akershus has rewarded shareholders with a total shareholder return of 24% in the last twelve months. That's including the dividend. That's better than the annualised return of 22% over half a decade, implying that the company is doing better recently. Given the share price momentum remains strong, it might be worth taking a closer look at the stock, lest you miss an opportunity. Most investors take the time to check the data on insider transactions. You can click here to see if insiders have been buying or selling.