While it may not be enough for some shareholders, we think it is good to see the TreeHouse Foods, Inc. (NYSE:THS) share price up 11% in a single quarter. But that doesn't change the fact that the returns over the last five years have been less than pleasing. In fact, the share price is down 34%, which falls well short of the return you could get by buying an index fund.

While the stock has risen 4.1% in the past week but long term shareholders are still in the red, let's see what the fundamentals can tell us.

View our latest analysis for TreeHouse Foods

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.

TreeHouse Foods became profitable within the last five years. On the other hand, it reported a trailing twelve months loss, suggesting it isn't reliably profitable. Other metrics may better explain the share price move.

It could be that the revenue decline of 7.2% per year is viewed as evidence that TreeHouse Foods is shrinking. This has probably encouraged some shareholders to sell down the stock.

The company's revenue and earnings (over time) are depicted in the image below (click to see the exact numbers).

We like that insiders have been buying shares in the last twelve months. Even so, future earnings will be far more important to whether current shareholders make money. So we recommend checking out this free report showing consensus forecasts

A Different Perspective

We're pleased to report that TreeHouse Foods shareholders have received a total shareholder return of 11% over one year. Notably the five-year annualised TSR loss of 6% per year compares very unfavourably with the recent share price performance. We generally put more weight on the long term performance over the short term, but the recent improvement could hint at a (positive) inflection point within the business. It is all well and good that insiders have been buying shares, but we suggest you check here to see what price insiders were buying at.

There are plenty of other companies that have insiders buying up shares. You probably do not want to miss this free list of growing companies that insiders are buying.

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.