Would Shareholders Who Purchased Natural Health Trends' (NASDAQ:NHTC) Stock Five Years Be Happy With The Share price Today?
Natural Health Trends Corp. (NASDAQ:NHTC) shareholders should be happy to see the share price up 14% in the last month. But that can't change the reality that over the longer term (five years), the returns have been really quite dismal. The share price has failed to impress anyone , down a sizable 77% during that time. Some might say the recent bounce is to be expected after such a bad drop. We'd err towards caution given the long term under-performance.
See our latest analysis for Natural Health Trends
While the efficient markets hypothesis continues to be taught by some, it has been proven that markets are over-reactive dynamic systems, and investors are not always rational. 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.
Natural Health Trends became profitable within the last five years. Most would consider that to be a good thing, so it's counter-intuitive to see the share price declining. Other metrics might give us a better handle on how its value is changing over time.
We note that the dividend has remained healthy, so that wouldn't really explain the share price drop. However, revenue has declined at a compound annual rate of 32% per year. With dividends up, but revenue down, some investors might be concluding that the company is no longer growing.
The company's revenue and earnings (over time) are depicted in the image below (click to see the exact numbers).
This free interactive report on Natural Health Trends' balance sheet strength is a great place to start, if you want to investigate the stock further.
What About Dividends?
As well as measuring the share price return, investors should also consider the total shareholder return (TSR). 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. It's fair to say that the TSR gives a more complete picture for stocks that pay a dividend. In the case of Natural Health Trends, it has a TSR of -63% for the last 5 years. That exceeds its share price return that we previously mentioned. And there's no prize for guessing that the dividend payments largely explain the divergence!
A Different Perspective
It's nice to see that Natural Health Trends shareholders have received a total shareholder return of 59% over the last year. That's including the dividend. Notably the five-year annualised TSR loss of 10% per year compares very unfavourably with the recent share price performance. This makes us a little wary, but the business might have turned around its fortunes. 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. Even so, be aware that Natural Health Trends is showing 4 warning signs in our investment analysis , and 1 of those is a bit concerning...
Of course Natural Health Trends may not be the best stock to buy. So you may wish to see this free collection of growth stocks.
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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