If you buy and hold a stock for many years, you'd hope to be making a profit. Better yet, you'd like to see the share price move up more than the market average. But California Water Service Group (NYSE:CWT) has fallen short of that second goal, with a share price rise of 24% over five years, which is below the market return. Zooming in, the stock is actually down 9.7% in the last year.
Let's take a look at the underlying fundamentals over the longer term, and see if they've been consistent with shareholders returns.
Check out our latest analysis for California Water Service Group
To quote Buffett, 'Ships will sail around the world but the Flat Earth Society will flourish. There will continue to be wide discrepancies between price and value in the marketplace...' 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.
During five years of share price growth, California Water Service Group achieved compound earnings per share (EPS) growth of 5.8% per year. The EPS growth is more impressive than the yearly share price gain of 4% over the same period. Therefore, it seems the market has become relatively pessimistic about the company.
You can see below how EPS has changed over time (discover the exact values by clicking on the image).
NYSE:CWT Earnings Per Share Growth October 23rd 2022
We're pleased to report that the CEO is remunerated more modestly than most CEOs at similarly capitalized companies. It's always worth keeping an eye on CEO pay, but a more important question is whether the company will grow earnings throughout the years. This free interactive report on California Water Service Group's earnings, revenue and cash flow is a great place to start, if you want to investigate the stock further.
What About Dividends?
When looking at investment returns, it is important to consider the difference between total shareholder return (TSR) and share price return. 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. In the case of California Water Service Group, it has a TSR of 35% for the last 5 years. That exceeds its share price return that we previously mentioned. The dividends paid by the company have thusly boosted the total shareholder return.
A Different Perspective
While it's certainly disappointing to see that California Water Service Group shares lost 8.2% throughout the year, that wasn't as bad as the market loss of 23%. Longer term investors wouldn't be so upset, since they would have made 6%, each year, over five years. In the best case scenario the last year is just a temporary blip on the journey to a brighter future. 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 5 warning signs for California Water Service Group you should be aware of, and 1 of them is potentially serious.
But note: California Water Service Group 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.
Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.
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.
如果你購買並持有一隻股票多年,你就有希望盈利。更好的是,你希望看到股價的漲幅超過市場平均水平。但加州水務集團(紐約證券交易所代碼:CWT)沒有達到第二個目標,股價在五年內上漲了24%,低於市場回報率。放大來看,該股去年實際上下跌了9.7%。
讓我們來看看較長期的基本基本面,看看它們是否與股東回報一致。
查看我們對加州水務集團的最新分析
用巴菲特的話説,“船隻將在世界各地航行,但平坦的地球協會將蓬勃發展。市場上的價格和價值之間將繼續存在巨大的差異……”評估圍繞一家公司的情緒變化的一個有缺陷但合理的方法是將每股收益(EPS)與股價進行比較。
在股價增長的五年中,加州水務集團實現了每股收益(EPS)每年5.8%的複合增長。每股收益的增長比同期股價4%的年漲幅更令人印象深刻。因此,市場似乎對該公司變得相對悲觀。
您可以在下面看到EPS是如何隨着時間的推移而變化的(通過單擊圖像來了解確切的值)。
紐約證券交易所:CWT每股收益增長2022年10月23日
我們很高興地報告,這位首席執行官的薪酬比類似資本公司的大多數首席執行官都要低。關注首席執行官的薪酬總是值得的,但更重要的問題是,該公司是否會在未來幾年實現盈利增長。這免費如果你想進一步調查加州水務集團的股票,關於加州水務集團的收益、收入和現金流的互動報告是一個很好的起點。
那股息呢?
在考察投資回報時,重要的是要考慮到股東總回報(TSR)和股價回報。雖然股價回報只反映股價的變動,但TSR包括股息的價值(假設股息再投資),以及任何折價集資或分拆所帶來的利益。公平地説,TSR為支付股息的股票提供了更完整的圖景。以加州水務集團為例,它在過去5年的TSR為35%。這超過了我們之前提到的它的股價回報。該公司支付的股息因此提振了總計股東回報。
不同的視角
雖然看到加州水務集團的股價全年下跌8.2%當然令人失望,但這並不像市場下跌23%那麼糟糕。較長期的投資者不會如此沮喪,因為他們在五年內每年會獲得6%的收益。在最好的情況下,去年只是通向更光明未來的旅途中的一個暫時的轉折點。雖然值得考慮市場狀況對股價可能產生的不同影響,但還有其他更重要的因素。一個恰當的例子:我們發現了加州水務集團的5個警告標誌您應該意識到,其中1個可能是嚴重的。
但請注意:加州水務集團可能不是最值得購買的股票。所以讓我們來看看這個免費過去有盈利增長(以及進一步增長預測)的有趣公司名單。
請注意,本文引用的市場回報反映了目前在美國交易所交易的股票的市場加權平均回報。
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本文由Simply Wall St.撰寫,具有概括性。我們僅使用不偏不倚的方法提供基於歷史數據和分析師預測的評論,我們的文章並不打算作為財務建議。它不構成買賣任何股票的建議,也沒有考慮你的目標或你的財務狀況。我們的目標是為您帶來由基本面數據驅動的長期重點分析。請注意,我們的分析可能不會將最新的對價格敏感的公司公告或定性材料考慮在內。Simply Wall St.對上述任何一隻股票都沒有持倉。