When you buy a stock there is always a possibility that it could drop 100%. But on a lighter note, a good company can see its share price rise well over 100%. For example, the Frequentis AG (ETR:FQT) share price has soared 128% in the last half decade. Most would be very happy with that. Also pleasing for shareholders was the 33% gain in the last three months. This could be related to the recent financial results, released recently – you can catch up on the most recent data by reading our company report.

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

We’ve found 21 US stocks that are forecast to pay a dividend yield of over 6% next year. See the full list for free.

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…’ 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 five years of share price growth, Frequentis achieved compound earnings per share (EPS) growth of 12% per year. This EPS growth is slower than the share price growth of 18% 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. And that’s hardly shocking given the track record of growth.

You can see how EPS has changed over time in the image below (click on the chart to see the exact values).

We know that Frequentis has improved its bottom line lately, but is it going to grow revenue? Check if analysts think Frequentis will grow revenue in the future.

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. We note that for Frequentis the TSR over the last 5 years was 137%, which is better than the share price return mentioned above. This is largely a result of its dividend payments!

It’s good to see that Frequentis has rewarded shareholders with a total shareholder return of 37% in the last twelve months. That’s including the dividend. That’s better than the annualised return of 19% over half a decade, implying that the company is doing better recently. Someone with an optimistic perspective could view the recent improvement in TSR as indicating that the business itself is getting better with time. Is Frequentis cheap compared to other companies? These 3 valuation measures might help you decide.