Yahoo Finance Coca-Cola's (NYSE:KO) 10% CAGR outpaced the company's earnings growth over the same five-year period
The main point of investing for the long term is to make money. But more than that, you probably want to see it rise more than the market average. Unfortunately for shareholders, while the The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) share price is up 38% in the last five years, that's less than the market return. Zooming in, the stock is up a respectable 14% in the last year.
Since it's been a strong week for Coca-Cola shareholders, let's have a look at trend of the longer term fundamentals.
See our latest analysis for Coca-Cola
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 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.
During five years of share price growth, Coca-Cola achieved compound earnings per share (EPS) growth of 10% per year. This EPS growth is higher than the 7% average annual increase in the share price. So one could conclude that the broader market has become more cautious towards the stock.
You can see how EPS has changed over time in the image below (click on the chart to see the exact values).
We know that Coca-Cola has improved its bottom line lately, but is it going to grow revenue? Check if analysts think Coca-Cola will grow revenue in the future.
What About Dividends?
As well as measuring the share price return, investors should also consider the total shareholder return (TSR). 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. As it happens, Coca-Cola's TSR for the last 5 years was 62%, which exceeds the share price return mentioned earlier. And there's no prize for guessing that the dividend payments largely explain the divergence!
A Different Perspective
It's nice to see that Coca-Cola shareholders have received a total shareholder return of 17% over the last year. Of course, that includes the dividend. That gain is better than the annual TSR over five years, which is 10%. Therefore it seems like sentiment around the company has been positive lately. In the best case scenario, this may hint at some real business momentum, implying that now could be a great time to delve deeper. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Coca-Cola better, we need to consider many other factors. To that end, you should be aware of the 1 warning sign we've spotted with Coca-Cola .
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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.
