Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:A) shareholders might be concerned after seeing the share price drop 25% in the last quarter. On the bright side the share price is up over the last half decade. In that time, it is up 28%, which isn’t bad, but is below the market return of 102%.

Now it’s worth having a look at the company’s fundamentals too, because that will help us determine if the long term shareholder return has matched the performance of the underlying business.

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There is no denying that markets are sometimes efficient, but prices do not always reflect underlying business performance. One imperfect but simple way to consider how the market perception of a company has shifted is to compare the change in the earnings per share (EPS) with the share price movement.

Over half a decade, Agilent Technologies managed to grow its earnings per share at 13% a year. The EPS growth is more impressive than the yearly share price gain of 5% over the same period. Therefore, it seems the market has become relatively pessimistic about the company.

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 Agilent Technologies’ earnings, revenue and cash flow.

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. Arguably, the TSR gives a more comprehensive picture of the return generated by a stock. We note that for Agilent Technologies the TSR over the last 5 years was 32%, which is better than the share price return mentioned above. The dividends paid by the company have thusly boosted the total shareholder return.

Agilent Technologies shareholders are down 27% for the year (even including dividends), but the market itself is up 9.6%. However, keep in mind that even the best stocks will sometimes underperform the market over a twelve month period. Longer term investors wouldn’t be so upset, since they would have made 6%, each year, over five years. It could be that the recent sell-off is an opportunity, so it may be worth checking the fundamental data for signs of a long term growth trend. 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 example, we’ve discovered 1 warning sign for Agilent Technologies that you should be aware of before investing here.