Explore PPC’s Fair Values from the Community and select yours

For many, the main point of investing in the stock market is to achieve spectacular returns. And highest quality companies can see their share prices grow by huge amounts. To wit, the PPC Ltd (JSE:PPC) share price has soared 535% over five years. If that doesn’t get you thinking about long term investing, we don’t know what will. Meanwhile the share price is 2.4% higher than it was a week ago. We love happy stories like this one. The company should be really proud of that performance!

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

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There is no denying that markets are sometimes efficient, but prices do not always reflect underlying business performance. 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 the last half decade, PPC became profitable. That kind of transition can be an inflection point that justifies a strong share price gain, just as we have seen here.

The graphic below depicts how EPS has changed over time (unveil the exact values by clicking on the image).

It is of course excellent to see how PPC has grown profits over the years, but the future is more important for shareholders. If you are thinking of buying or selling PPC stock, you should check out this FREE detailed report on its balance sheet.

It is important to consider the total shareholder return, as well as the share price return, for any given stock. 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. Arguably, the TSR gives a more comprehensive picture of the return generated by a stock. We note that for PPC the TSR over the last 5 years was 641%, which is better than the share price return mentioned above. This is largely a result of its dividend payments!

It’s nice to see that PPC shareholders have received a total shareholder return of 44% over the last year. That’s including the dividend. Having said that, the five-year TSR of 49% a year, is even better. 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. Consider for instance, the ever-present spectre of investment risk. We’ve identified 1 warning sign with PPC , and understanding them should be part of your investment process.