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If you are building a properly diversified stock portfolio, the chances are some of your picks will perform badly. But long term Steamships Trading Company Limited (ASX:SST) shareholders have had a particularly rough ride in the last three year. So they might be feeling emotional about the 57% share price collapse, in that time. The more recent news is of little comfort, with the share price down 39% in a year.
View our latest analysis for Steamships Trading
To paraphrase Benjamin Graham: Over the short term the market is a voting machine, but over the long term it's a weighing machine. 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 the three years that the share price fell, Steamships Trading's earnings per share (EPS) dropped by 16% each year. This reduction in EPS is slower than the 25% annual reduction in the share price. So it seems the market was too confident about the business, in the past.
The graphic below depicts how EPS has changed over time (unveil the exact values by clicking on the image).
It might be well worthwhile taking a look at our free report on Steamships Trading's earnings, revenue and cash flow.
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. So for companies that pay a generous dividend, the TSR is often a lot higher than the share price return. In the case of Steamships Trading, it has a TSR of -53% for the last 3 years. 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 regret to report that Steamships Trading shareholders are down 37% for the year (even including dividends). Unfortunately, that's worse than the broader market decline of 4.3%. Having said that, it's inevitable that some stocks will be oversold in a falling market. The key is to keep your eyes on the fundamental developments. Unfortunately, last year's performance may indicate unresolved challenges, given that it was worse than the annualised loss of 7.0% over the last half decade. We realise that Baron Rothschild has said investors should "buy when there is blood on the streets", but we caution that investors should first be sure they are buying a high quality business. While it is well worth considering the different impacts that market conditions can have on the share price, there are other factors that are even more important. For instance, we've identified 2 warning signs for Steamships Trading (1 shouldn't be ignored) that you should be aware of.