Just Group plc (LON:JUST) shareholders have seen the share price descend 13% over the month. But that scarcely detracts from the really solid long term returns generated by the company over five years. It’s fair to say most would be happy with 165% the gain in that time. Generally speaking the long term returns will give you a better idea of business quality than short periods can. Of course, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s cheap now.

So let’s investigate and see if the longer term performance of the company has been in line with the underlying business’ progress.

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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 the five years of share price growth, Just Group moved from a loss to profitability. That kind of transition can be an inflection point that justifies a strong share price gain, just as we have seen here.

You can see below how EPS has changed over time (discover the exact values by clicking on the image).

We like that insiders have been buying shares in the last twelve months. Even so, future earnings will be far more important to whether current shareholders make money. Before buying or selling a stock, we always recommend a close examination of historic growth trends, available here..

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. So for companies that pay a generous dividend, the TSR is often a lot higher than the share price return. As it happens, Just Group’s TSR for the last 5 years was 185%, which exceeds the share price return mentioned earlier. And there’s no prize for guessing that the dividend payments largely explain the divergence!

We’re pleased to report that Just Group shareholders have received a total shareholder return of 22% over one year. Of course, that includes the dividend. However, the TSR over five years, coming in at 23% per year, is even more impressive. 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. To that end, you should be aware of the 1 warning sign we’ve spotted with Just Group .