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How Much Did Compass Group's(LON:CPG) Shareholders Earn From Share Price Movements Over The Last Year?

Investors can approximate the average market return by buying an index fund. Active investors aim to buy stocks that vastly outperform the market - but in the process, they risk under-performance. Investors in Compass Group PLC (LON:CPG) have tasted that bitter downside in the last year, as the share price dropped 48%. That falls noticeably short of the market decline of around 17%. To make matters worse, the returns over three years have also been really disappointing (the share price is 35% lower than three years ago). Unfortunately the share price momentum is still quite negative, with prices down 14% in thirty days.

Check out our latest analysis for Compass Group

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 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 Compass Group reported an EPS drop of 12% for the last year. This reduction in EPS is not as bad as the 48% share price fall. This suggests the EPS fall has made some shareholders are more nervous about the business.

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

earnings-per-share-growth
earnings-per-share-growth

This free interactive report on Compass Group's earnings, revenue and cash flow is a great place to start, if you want to investigate the stock further.

A Different Perspective

While the broader market lost about 17% in the twelve months, Compass Group shareholders did even worse, losing 48%. 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. Longer term investors wouldn't be so upset, since they would have made 1.9%, each year, over five years. It could be that the recent sell-off is an opportunity, so it may be worth checking the fundamental data for signs of a long term growth trend. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Compass Group better, we need to consider many other factors. For example, we've discovered 2 warning signs for Compass Group that you should be aware of before investing here.

We will like Compass Group better if we see some big insider buys. While we wait, check out this free list of growing companies 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 GB exchanges.

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. 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.

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