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Ideally, your overall portfolio should beat the market average. But even the best stock picker will only win with some selections. So we wouldn't blame long term Singapore Post Limited (SGX:S08) shareholders for doubting their decision to hold, with the stock down 44% over a half decade. We also note that the stock has performed poorly over the last year, with the share price down 26%.
See our latest analysis for Singapore Post
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.
Looking back five years, both Singapore Post's share price and EPS declined; the latter at a rate of 55% per year. This fall in the EPS is worse than the 11% compound annual share price fall. So the market may previously have expected a drop, or else it expects the situation will improve. The high P/E ratio of 544.80 suggests that shareholders believe earnings will grow in the years ahead.
The company's earnings per share (over time) is depicted in the image below (click to see the exact numbers).
Dive deeper into Singapore Post's key metrics by checking this interactive graph of Singapore Post's earnings, revenue and cash flow.
What About Dividends?
As well as measuring the share price return, investors should also consider the total shareholder return (TSR). 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. It's fair to say that the TSR gives a more complete picture for stocks that pay a dividend. We note that for Singapore Post the TSR over the last 5 years was -35%, which is better than the share price return mentioned above. And there's no prize for guessing that the dividend payments largely explain the divergence!
A Different Perspective
Investors in Singapore Post had a tough year, with a total loss of 24% (including dividends), against a market gain of about 5.9%. Even the share prices of good stocks drop sometimes, but we want to see improvements in the fundamental metrics of a business, before getting too interested. Regrettably, last year's performance caps off a bad run, with the shareholders facing a total loss of 8.2% per year over five years. Generally speaking long term share price weakness can be a bad sign, though contrarian investors might want to research the stock in hope of a turnaround. Keeping this in mind, a solid next step might be to take a look at Singapore Post's dividend track record. This free interactive graph is a great place to start.