Should Asbury Automotive Group (NYSE:ABG) Be Disappointed With Their 95% Profit?
By buying an index fund, investors can approximate the average market return. But many of us dare to dream of bigger returns, and build a portfolio ourselves. Just take a look at Asbury Automotive Group, Inc. (NYSE:ABG), which is up 95%, over three years, soundly beating the market return of 33% (not including dividends). On the other hand, the returns haven't been quite so good recently, with shareholders up just 16%.
See our latest analysis for Asbury Automotive Group
While markets are a powerful pricing mechanism, share prices reflect investor sentiment, not just underlying business performance. One way to examine how market sentiment has changed over time is to look at the interaction between a company's share price and its earnings per share (EPS).
Asbury Automotive Group was able to grow its EPS at 2.1% per year over three years, sending the share price higher. This EPS growth is lower than the 25% average annual increase in the share price. So it's fair to assume the market has a higher opinion of the business than it did three years ago. It is quite common to see investors become enamoured with a business, after a few years of solid progress.
You can see how EPS has changed over time in the image below (click on the chart to see the exact values).
This free interactive report on Asbury Automotive Group's earnings, revenue and cash flow is a great place to start, if you want to investigate the stock further.
A Different Perspective
Asbury Automotive Group provided a TSR of 16% over the last twelve months. Unfortunately this falls short of the market return. The silver lining is that the gain was actually better than the average annual return of 8% per year over five year. It is possible that returns will improve along with the business fundamentals. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Asbury Automotive Group better, we need to consider many other factors. For instance, we've identified 2 warning signs for Asbury Automotive Group that you should be aware of.
We will like Asbury Automotive Group better if we see some big insider buys. While we wait, check out this free list of growing companies with considerable, recent, insider buying.
Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on US exchanges.
This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
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