The one-year decline in earnings might be taking its toll on Hikma Pharmaceuticals (LON:HIK) shareholders as stock falls 3.3% over the past week
If you want to compound wealth in the stock market, you can do so by buying an index fund. But investors can boost returns by picking market-beating companies to own shares in. For example, the Hikma Pharmaceuticals PLC (LON:HIK) share price is up 56% in the last 1 year, clearly besting the market return of around 0.8% (not including dividends). That's a solid performance by our standards! Zooming out, the stock is actually down 22% in the last three years.
While this past week has detracted from the company's one-year return, let's look at the recent trends of the underlying business and see if the gains have been in alignment.
See our latest analysis for Hikma Pharmaceuticals
There is no denying that markets are sometimes efficient, but prices do not always reflect underlying business performance. 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.
Over the last twelve months, Hikma Pharmaceuticals actually shrank its EPS by 56%.
Given the share price gain, we doubt the market is measuring progress with EPS. Indeed, when EPS is declining but the share price is up, it often means the market is considering other factors.
However the year on year revenue growth of 7.1% would help. We do see some companies suppress earnings in order to accelerate revenue growth.
You can see how earnings and revenue have changed over time in the image below (click on the chart to see the exact values).
Hikma Pharmaceuticals is well known by investors, and plenty of clever analysts have tried to predict the future profit levels. So it makes a lot of sense to check out what analysts think Hikma Pharmaceuticals will earn in the future (free analyst consensus estimates)
What About Dividends?
As well as measuring the share price return, investors should also consider the total shareholder return (TSR). 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. In the case of Hikma Pharmaceuticals, it has a TSR of 60% for the last 1 year. That exceeds its share price return that we previously mentioned. This is largely a result of its dividend payments!
A Different Perspective
It's good to see that Hikma Pharmaceuticals has rewarded shareholders with a total shareholder return of 60% in the last twelve months. That's including the dividend. That's better than the annualised return of 4% over half a decade, implying that the company is doing better recently. Someone with an optimistic perspective could view the recent improvement in TSR as indicating that the business itself is getting better with time. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Hikma Pharmaceuticals better, we need to consider many other factors. For instance, we've identified 5 warning signs for Hikma Pharmaceuticals that you should be aware of.
If you would prefer to check out another company -- one with potentially superior financials -- then do not miss this free list of companies that have proven they can grow earnings.
Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on British 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.
