It hasn’t been the best quarter for Ibraco Berhad (KLSE:IBRACO) shareholders, since the share price has fallen 16% in that time. But that doesn’t change the fact that the returns over the last five years have been pleasing. Its return of 79% has certainly bested the market return!

So let’s assess the underlying fundamentals over the last 5 years and see if they’ve moved in lock-step with shareholder returns.

While markets are a powerful pricing mechanism, share prices reflect investor sentiment, not just underlying business performance. By comparing earnings per share (EPS) and share price changes over time, we can get a feel for how investor attitudes to a company have morphed over time.

During five years of share price growth, Ibraco Berhad achieved compound earnings per share (EPS) growth of 4.9% per year. This EPS growth is slower than the share price growth of 12% per year, over the same period. So it’s fair to assume the market has a higher opinion of the business than it did five years ago. 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).

It might be well worthwhile taking a look at our free report on Ibraco Berhad’s earnings, revenue and cash flow.

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, Ibraco Berhad’s TSR for the last 5 years was 108%, which exceeds the share price return mentioned earlier. This is largely a result of its dividend payments!

It’s good to see that Ibraco Berhad has rewarded shareholders with a total shareholder return of 17% in the last twelve months. Of course, that includes the dividend. That gain is better than the annual TSR over five years, which is 16%. Therefore it seems like sentiment around the company has been positive lately. In the best case scenario, this may hint at some real business momentum, implying that now could be a great time to delve deeper. 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. Case in point: We’ve spotted 3 warning signs for Ibraco Berhad you should be aware of, and 2 of them can’t be ignored.