Share Price Aside, Mackenzie Master Limited Partnership (TSE:MKZ.UN) Has Delivered Shareholders A 16% Return.

Many investors define successful investing as beating the market average over the long term. But in any portfolio, there are likely to be some stocks that fall short of that benchmark. Unfortunately, that's been the case for longer term Mackenzie Master Limited Partnership (TSE:MKZ.UN) shareholders, since the share price is down 19% in the last three years, falling well short of the market return of around 30%. Unhappily, the share price slid 4.8% in the last week.

View our latest analysis for Mackenzie Master Limited Partnership

While markets are a powerful pricing mechanism, share prices reflect investor sentiment, not just 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.

Mackenzie Master Limited Partnership saw its EPS decline at a compound rate of 13% per year, over the last three years. This fall in the EPS is worse than the 7% compound annual share price fall. This suggests that the market retains some optimism around long term earnings stability, despite past EPS declines.

The company's earnings per share (over time) is depicted in the image below (click to see the exact numbers).

earnings-per-share-growth
earnings-per-share-growth

This free interactive report on Mackenzie Master Limited Partnership's earnings, revenue and cash flow is a great place to start, if you want to investigate the stock further.

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. As it happens, Mackenzie Master Limited Partnership's TSR for the last 3 years was 16%, which exceeds the share price return mentioned earlier. The dividends paid by the company have thusly boosted the total shareholder return.

A Different Perspective

Mackenzie Master Limited Partnership provided a TSR of 1.2% over the last twelve months. But that return falls short of the market. It's probably a good sign that the company has an even better long term track record, having provided shareholders with an annual TSR of 10% over five years. It's quite possible the business continues to execute with prowess, even as the share price gains are slowing. 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. Case in point: We've spotted 4 warning signs for Mackenzie Master Limited Partnership you should be aware of, and 3 of them are a bit concerning.

But note: Mackenzie Master Limited Partnership may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies with past earnings growth (and further growth forecast).

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on CA 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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