The main point of investing for the long term is to make money. But more than that, you probably want to see it rise more than the market average. Unfortunately for shareholders, while the Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) share price is up 49% in the last five years, that’s less than the market return. Over the last twelve months the stock price has risen a very respectable 5.6%.

Let’s take a look at the underlying fundamentals over the longer term, and see if they’ve been consistent with shareholders returns.

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To quote Buffett, ‘Ships will sail around the world but the Flat Earth Society will flourish. There will continue to be wide discrepancies between price and value in the marketplace…’ 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.

Over half a decade, Equifax managed to grow its earnings per share at 16% a year. The EPS growth is more impressive than the yearly share price gain of 8% over the same period. So it seems the market isn’t so enthusiastic about the stock these days. Having said that, the market is still optimistic, given the P/E ratio of 51.96.

The company’s earnings per share (over time) is depicted in the image below (click to see the exact numbers).

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

As well as measuring the share price return, investors should also consider the total shareholder return (TSR). The TSR is a return calculation that accounts for the value of cash dividends (assuming that any dividend received was reinvested) and the calculated value of any discounted capital raisings and spin-offs. So for companies that pay a generous dividend, the TSR is often a lot higher than the share price return. As it happens, Equifax’s TSR for the last 5 years was 54%, which exceeds the share price return mentioned earlier. This is largely a result of its dividend payments!

Equifax shareholders gained a total return of 6.3% during the year. Unfortunately this falls short of the market return. On the bright side, the longer term returns (running at about 9% a year, over half a decade) look better. It may well be that this is a business worth popping on the watching, given the continuing positive reception, over time, from the market. It’s always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Equifax better, we need to consider many other factors. Take risks, for example – Equifax has 1 warning sign we think you should be aware of.