It hasn’t been the best quarter for M&T Bank Corporation (NYSE:MTB) shareholders, since the share price has fallen 12% in that time. But the silver lining is the stock is up over five years. However we are not very impressed because the share price is only up 74%, less than the market return of 127%.

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

View our latest analysis for M&T Bank

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, M&T Bank achieved compound earnings per share (EPS) growth of 1.6% per year. This EPS growth is lower than the 12% average annual increase in the share price. This suggests that market participants hold the company in higher regard, these days. That’s not necessarily surprising considering the five-year track record of earnings growth.

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 M&T Bank’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. The TSR incorporates the value of any spin-offs or discounted capital raisings, along with any dividends, based on the assumption that the dividends are reinvested. It’s fair to say that the TSR gives a more complete picture for stocks that pay a dividend. As it happens, M&T Bank’s TSR for the last 5 years was 105%, which exceeds the share price return mentioned earlier. This is largely a result of its dividend payments!

We’re pleased to report that M&T Bank shareholders have received a total shareholder return of 39% over one year. Of course, that includes the dividend. That’s better than the annualised return of 15% over half a decade, implying that the company is doing better recently. In the best case scenario, this may hint at some real business momentum, implying that now could be a great time to delve deeper. Before spending more time on M&T Bank it might be wise to click here to see if insiders have been buying or selling shares.