Yahoo Finance The five-year shareholder returns and company earnings persist lower as Trinseo (NYSE:TSE) stock falls a further 3.6% in past week
The main aim of stock picking is to find the market-beating stocks. But in any portfolio, there will be mixed results between individual stocks. At this point some shareholders may be questioning their investment in Trinseo PLC (NYSE:TSE), since the last five years saw the share price fall 43%. And some of the more recent buyers are probably worried, too, with the stock falling 33% in the last year. Shareholders have had an even rougher run lately, with the share price down 20% in the last 90 days. Of course, this share price action may well have been influenced by the 17% decline in the broader market, throughout the period.
After losing 3.6% this past week, it's worth investigating the company's fundamentals to see what we can infer from past performance.
View our latest analysis for Trinseo
In his essay The Superinvestors of Graham-and-Doddsville Warren Buffett described how share prices do not always rationally reflect the value of a business. 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.
Looking back five years, both Trinseo's share price and EPS declined; the latter at a rate of 4.2% per year. Readers should note that the share price has fallen faster than the EPS, at a rate of 11% per year, over the period. This implies that the market is more cautious about the business these days. The low P/E ratio of 6.07 further reflects this reticence.
The company's earnings per share (over time) is depicted in the image below (click to see the exact numbers).
We consider it positive that insiders have made significant purchases in the last year. Even so, future earnings will be far more important to whether current shareholders make money. Before buying or selling a stock, we always recommend a close examination of historic growth trends, available here..
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. Arguably, the TSR gives a more comprehensive picture of the return generated by a stock. We note that for Trinseo the TSR over the last 5 years was -34%, 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
We regret to report that Trinseo shareholders are down 32% for the year (even including dividends). Unfortunately, that's worse than the broader market decline of 20%. However, it could simply be that the share price has been impacted by broader market jitters. It might be worth keeping an eye on the fundamentals, in case there's a good opportunity. Unfortunately, last year's performance may indicate unresolved challenges, given that it was worse than the annualised loss of 6% over the last half decade. We realise that Baron Rothschild has said investors should "buy when there is blood on the streets", but we caution that investors should first be sure they are buying a high quality business. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Trinseo better, we need to consider many other factors. Even so, be aware that Trinseo is showing 6 warning signs in our investment analysis , and 2 of those are concerning...
Trinseo is not the only stock insiders are buying. So take a peek at this free list of growing companies with insider 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.
