Nature's Sunshine Products (NASDAQ:NATR) shareholders have earned a 18% CAGR over the last three years

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Explore Nature's Sunshine Products's Fair Values from the Community and select yours
By buying an index fund, investors can approximate the average market return. But if you choose individual stocks with prowess, you can make superior returns. For example, Nature's Sunshine Products, Inc. (NASDAQ:NATR) shareholders have seen the share price rise 63% over three years, well in excess of the market return (49%, not including dividends). On the other hand, the returns haven't been quite so good recently, with shareholders up just 26%.
So let's assess the underlying fundamentals over the last 3 years and see if they've moved in lock-step with shareholder returns.
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There is no denying that markets are sometimes efficient, but prices do not always reflect underlying business performance. One flawed but reasonable way to assess how sentiment around a company has changed is to compare the earnings per share (EPS) with the share price.
Over the last three years, Nature's Sunshine Products failed to grow earnings per share, which fell 0.3% (annualized).
Based on these numbers, we think that the decline in earnings per share may not be a good representation of how the business has changed over the years. Since the change in EPS doesn't seem to correlate with the change in share price, it's worth taking a look at other metrics.
Do you think that shareholders are buying for the 2.0% per annum revenue growth trend? We don't. While we don't have an obvious theory to explain the share price rise, a closer look at the data might be enlightening.
The graphic below depicts how earnings and revenue have changed over time (unveil the exact values by clicking on the image).
Take a more thorough look at Nature's Sunshine Products' financial health with this free report on its balance sheet.
A Different Perspective
It's nice to see that Nature's Sunshine Products shareholders have received a total shareholder return of 26% over the last year. Since the one-year TSR is better than the five-year TSR (the latter coming in at 10% per year), it would seem that the stock's performance has improved in recent times. In the best case scenario, this may hint at some real business momentum, implying that now could be a great time to delve deeper. I find it very interesting to look at share price over the long term as a proxy for business performance. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too. Consider risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 1 warning sign for Nature's Sunshine Products you should know about.
Of course Nature's Sunshine Products may not be the best stock to buy. So you may wish to see this free collection of growth stocks.
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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