Can You Imagine How Jubilant BlueScope Steel's (ASX:BSL) Shareholders Feel About Its 257% Share Price Gain?
The worst result, after buying shares in a company (assuming no leverage), would be if you lose all the money you put in. But on the bright side, you can make far more than 100% on a really good stock. For example, the BlueScope Steel Limited (ASX:BSL) share price has soared 257% in the last half decade. Most would be very happy with that. Also pleasing for shareholders was the 35% gain in the last three months.
Check out our latest analysis for BlueScope Steel
To paraphrase Benjamin Graham: Over the short term the market is a voting machine, but over the long term it's a weighing machine. 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.
BlueScope Steel's earnings per share are down 3.5% per year, despite strong share price performance over five years.
So it's hard to argue that the earnings per share are the best metric to judge the company, as it may not be optimized for profits at this point. Therefore, it's worth taking a look at other metrics to try to understand the share price movements.
We doubt the modest 0.9% dividend yield is attracting many buyers to the stock. On the other hand, BlueScope Steel's revenue is growing nicely, at a compound rate of 8.2% over the last five years. In that case, the company may be sacrificing current earnings per share to drive growth.
The graphic below depicts how earnings and revenue have changed over time (unveil the exact values by clicking on the image).
BlueScope Steel is a well known stock, with plenty of analyst coverage, suggesting some visibility into future growth. You can see what analysts are predicting for BlueScope Steel in this interactive graph of future profit estimates.
What About Dividends?
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. It's fair to say that the TSR gives a more complete picture for stocks that pay a dividend. We note that for BlueScope Steel the TSR over the last 5 years was 274%, which is better than the share price return mentioned above. This is largely a result of its dividend payments!
A Different Perspective
It's good to see that BlueScope Steel has rewarded shareholders with a total shareholder return of 25% in the last twelve months. That's including the dividend. However, the TSR over five years, coming in at 30% per year, is even more impressive. I find it very interesting to look at share price over the long term as a proxy for business performance. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too. Case in point: We've spotted 4 warning signs for BlueScope Steel you should be aware of.
If you like to buy stocks alongside management, then you might just love this free list of companies. (Hint: insiders have been buying them).
Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on AU 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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