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If You Had Bought Flow Traders (AMS:FLOW) Stock A Year Ago, You'd Be Sitting On A 23% Loss, Today

Passive investing in an index fund is a good way to ensure your own returns roughly match the overall market. While individual stocks can be big winners, plenty more fail to generate satisfactory returns. Unfortunately the Flow Traders N.V. (AMS:FLOW) share price slid 23% over twelve months. That falls noticeably short of the market return of around 2.4%. Looking at the longer term, the stock is down 21% over three years. It's down 1.8% in the last seven days.

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View our latest analysis for Flow Traders

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 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).

Unfortunately Flow Traders reported an EPS drop of 48% for the last year. The share price fall of 23% isn't as bad as the reduction in earnings per share. So despite the weak per-share profits, some investors are probably relieved the situation wasn't more difficult.

You can see how EPS has changed over time in the image below (click on the chart to see the exact values).

ENXTAM:FLOW Past and Future Earnings, May 27th 2019
ENXTAM:FLOW Past and Future Earnings, May 27th 2019

This free interactive report on Flow Traders'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. 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. So for companies that pay a generous dividend, the TSR is often a lot higher than the share price return. In the case of Flow Traders, it has a TSR of -16% for the last year. 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

Flow Traders shareholders are down 16% for the year (even including dividends), but the broader market is up 2.4%. Of course the long term matters more than the short term, and even great stocks will sometimes have a poor year. Shareholders have lost 2.5% per year over the last three years, so the share price drop has become steeper, over the last year; a potential symptom of as yet unsolved challenges. We would be wary of buying into a company with unsolved problems, although some investors will buy into struggling stocks if they believe the price is sufficiently attractive. If you would like to research Flow Traders in more detail then you might want to take a look at whether insiders have been buying or selling shares in the company.

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of companies we expect will grow earnings.

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

We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.

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