Suria Capital Holdings Berhad (KLSE:SURIA) shareholders might be concerned after seeing the share price drop 17% in the last quarter. But that doesn’t change the fact that the returns over the last five years have been pleasing. Its return of 75% has certainly bested the market return! Unfortunately not all shareholders will have held it for the long term, so spare a thought for those caught in the 28% decline over the last twelve months.

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

AI is about to change healthcare. These 20 stocks are working on everything from early diagnostics to drug discovery. The best part – they are all under $10bn in marketcap – there is still time to get in early.

There is no denying that markets are sometimes efficient, but prices do not always reflect 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.

Suria Capital Holdings Berhad’s earnings per share are down 8.5% per year, despite strong share price performance over five years.

Essentially, it doesn’t seem likely that investors are focused on EPS. Since the change in EPS doesn’t seem to correlate with the change in share price, it’s worth taking a look at other metrics.

We doubt the modest 1.9% dividend yield is attracting many buyers to the stock. On the other hand, Suria Capital Holdings Berhad’s revenue is growing nicely, at a compound rate of 4.3% over the last five years. In that case, the company may be sacrificing current earnings per share to drive growth.

You can see below how earnings and revenue have changed over time (discover the exact values by clicking on the image).

Balance sheet strength is crucial. It might be well worthwhile taking a look at our free report on how its financial position has changed over time.

It is important to consider the total shareholder return, as well as the share price return, for any given stock. 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. We note that for Suria Capital Holdings Berhad the TSR over the last 5 years was 104%, which is better than the share price return mentioned above. And there’s no prize for guessing that the dividend payments largely explain the divergence!