For many, the main point of investing in the stock market is to achieve spectacular returns. And highest quality companies can see their share prices grow by huge amounts. Just think about the savvy investors who held The Trade Desk, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTD) shares for the last five years, while they gained 373%. If that doesn't get you thinking about long term investing, we don't know what will. In more good news, the share price has risen 24% in thirty days. This could be related to the recent financial results that were recently released - you could check the most recent data by reading our company report.

The past week has proven to be lucrative for Trade Desk investors, so let's see if fundamentals drove the company's five-year performance.

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 way to examine how market sentiment has changed over time is to look at the interaction between a company's share price and its earnings per share (EPS).

Over half a decade, Trade Desk managed to grow its earnings per share at 15% a year. This EPS growth is slower than the share price growth of 36% per year, over the same period. So it's fair to assume the market has a higher opinion of the business than it did five years ago. That's not necessarily surprising considering the five-year track record of earnings growth. This favorable sentiment is reflected in its (fairly optimistic) P/E ratio of 232.44.

The image below shows how EPS has tracked over time (if you click on the image you can see greater detail).

We know that Trade Desk has improved its bottom line lately, but is it going to grow revenue? You could check out this free report showing analyst revenue forecasts.

A Different Perspective

It's nice to see that Trade Desk shareholders have received a total shareholder return of 43% over the last year. That gain is better than the annual TSR over five years, which is 36%. Therefore it seems like sentiment around the company has been positive lately. Someone with an optimistic perspective could view the recent improvement in TSR as indicating that the business itself is getting better with time. If you would like to research Trade Desk in more detail then you might want to take a look at whether insiders have been buying or selling shares in the company.

We will like Trade Desk better if we see some big insider buys. While we wait, check out this free list of undervalued stocks (mostly small caps) with considerable, recent, insider buying.

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