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If you buy and hold a stock for many years, you'd hope to be making a profit. Better yet, you'd like to see the share price move up more than the market average. Unfortunately for shareholders, while the Aptiv PLC (NYSE:APTV) share price is up 21% in the last five years, that's less than the market return. Meanwhile, the last twelve months saw the share price rise 4.9%.
See our latest analysis for Aptiv
There is no denying that markets are sometimes efficient, but prices do not always reflect 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, Aptiv managed to grow its earnings per share at 8.7% a year. The EPS growth is more impressive than the yearly share price gain of 3.9% over the same period. Therefore, it seems the market has become relatively pessimistic about the company.
You can see below how EPS has changed over time (discover the exact values by clicking on the image).
We know that Aptiv has improved its bottom line over the last three years, but what does the future have in store? Take a more thorough look at Aptiv's financial health with this free report on its balance sheet.
What about the Total Shareholder Return (TSR)?
Investors should note that there's a difference between Aptiv's total shareholder return (TSR) and its share price change, which we've covered above. Arguably the TSR is a more complete return calculation because it accounts for the value of dividends (as if they were reinvested), along with the hypothetical value of any discounted capital that have been offered to shareholders. Dividends have been really beneficial for Aptiv shareholders, and that cash payout contributed to why its TSR of 54%, over the last 5 years, is better than the share price return.
A Different Perspective
Aptiv shareholders gained a total return of 5.4% during the year. Unfortunately this falls short of the market return. It's probably a good sign that the company has an even better long term track record, having provided shareholders with an annual TSR of 9.0% over five years. It's quite possible the business continues to execute with prowess, even as the share price gains are slowing. I find it very interesting to look at share price over the long term as a proxy for business performance. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too. Take risks, for example - Aptiv has 4 warning signs (and 1 which is a bit concerning) we think you should know about.