Those who invested in Maui Land & Pineapple Company (NYSE:MLP) a year ago are up 61%

The simplest way to invest in stocks is to buy exchange traded funds. But investors can boost returns by picking market-beating companies to own shares in. For example, the Maui Land & Pineapple Company, Inc. (NYSE:MLP) share price is up 61% in the last 1 year, clearly besting the market return of around 8.1% (not including dividends). If it can keep that out-performance up over the long term, investors will do very well! Also impressive, the stock is up 33% over three years, making long term shareholders happy, too.

Now it's worth having a look at the company's fundamentals too, because that will help us determine if the long term shareholder return has matched the performance of the underlying business.

See our latest analysis for Maui Land & Pineapple Company

Because Maui Land & Pineapple Company made a loss in the last twelve months, we think the market is probably more focussed on revenue and revenue growth, at least for now. Generally speaking, companies without profits are expected to grow revenue every year, and at a good clip. As you can imagine, fast revenue growth, when maintained, often leads to fast profit growth.

Maui Land & Pineapple Company actually shrunk its revenue over the last year, with a reduction of 56%. The stock is up 61% in that time, a fine performance given the revenue drop. We can correlate the share price rise with revenue or profit growth, but it seems the market had previously expected weaker results, and sentiment around the stock is improving.

The graphic below depicts how earnings and revenue have changed over time (unveil the exact values by clicking on the image).

earnings-and-revenue-growth

This free interactive report on Maui Land & Pineapple Company's balance sheet strength is a great place to start, if you want to investigate the stock further.

A Different Perspective

It's nice to see that Maui Land & Pineapple Company shareholders have received a total shareholder return of 61% over the last year. That's better than the annualised return of 6% 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. Most investors take the time to check the data on insider transactions. You can click here to see if insiders have been buying or selling.

But note: Maui Land & Pineapple Company may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies with past earnings growth (and further growth forecast).

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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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.