Most people feel a little frustrated if a stock they own goes down in price. But sometimes a share price fall can have more to do with market conditions than the performance of the specific business. So while the Pacific Premier Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:PPBI) share price is down 13% in the last year, the total return to shareholders (which includes dividends) was -9.9%. That's better than the market which declined 14% over the last year. Longer term investors have fared much better, since the share price is up 0.8% in three years.

With that in mind, it's worth seeing if the company's underlying fundamentals have been the driver of long term performance, or if there are some discrepancies.

Check out our latest analysis for Pacific Premier Bancorp

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 imperfect but simple way to consider how the market perception of a company has shifted is to compare the change in the earnings per share (EPS) with the share price movement.

Even though the Pacific Premier Bancorp share price is down over the year, its EPS actually improved. It could be that the share price was previously over-hyped.

It seems quite likely that the market was expecting higher growth from the stock. But looking to other metrics might better explain the share price change.

Pacific Premier Bancorp's dividend seems healthy to us, so we doubt that the yield is a concern for the market. The revenue trend doesn't seem to explain why the share price is down. Unless, of course, the market was expecting a revenue uptick.

You can see below how earnings and revenue have changed over time (discover the exact values by clicking on the image).

You can see how its balance sheet has strengthened (or weakened) over time in this free interactive graphic.

What About Dividends?

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. It's fair to say that the TSR gives a more complete picture for stocks that pay a dividend. We note that for Pacific Premier Bancorp the TSR over the last 1 year was -9.9%, which is better than the share price return mentioned above. And there's no prize for guessing that the dividend payments largely explain the divergence!

A Different Perspective

While it's never nice to take a loss, Pacific Premier Bancorp shareholders can take comfort that , including dividends,their trailing twelve month loss of 9.9% wasn't as bad as the market loss of around 14%. Of course, the long term returns are far more important and the good news is that over five years, the stock has returned 1.6% for each year. In the best case scenario the last year is just a temporary blip on the journey to a brighter future. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Pacific Premier Bancorp better, we need to consider many other factors. To that end, you should be aware of the 1 warning sign we've spotted with Pacific Premier Bancorp .

But note: Pacific Premier Bancorp 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 US exchanges.

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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. 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.