Sonoco Products (NYSE:SON) shareholders have lost 13% over 3 years, earnings decline likely the culprit

For many investors, the main point of stock picking is to generate higher returns than the overall market. But if you try your hand at stock picking, you risk returning less than the market. Unfortunately, that's been the case for longer term Sonoco Products Company (NYSE:SON) shareholders, since the share price is down 23% in the last three years, falling well short of the market return of around 92%.

With the stock having lost 5.2% in the past week, it's worth taking a look at business performance and seeing if there's any red flags.

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To quote Buffett, 'Ships will sail around the world but the Flat Earth Society will flourish. There will continue to be wide discrepancies between price and value in the marketplace...' 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).

During the three years that the share price fell, Sonoco Products' earnings per share (EPS) dropped by 40% each year. In comparison the 8% compound annual share price decline isn't as bad as the EPS drop-off. So, despite the prior disappointment, shareholders must have some confidence the situation will improve, longer term. With a P/E ratio of 46.51, it's fair to say the market sees a brighter future for the business.

The graphic below depicts how EPS has changed over time (unveil the exact values by clicking on the image).

We consider it positive that insiders have made significant purchases in the last year. Even so, future earnings will be far more important to whether current shareholders make money. This free interactive report on Sonoco Products' earnings, revenue and cash flow is a great place to start, if you want to investigate the stock further.

What About Dividends?

When looking at investment returns, it is important to consider the difference between total shareholder return (TSR) and share price return. 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 Sonoco Products, it has a TSR of -13% for the last 3 years. That exceeds its share price return that we previously mentioned. This is largely a result of its dividend payments!

A Different Perspective

While the broader market gained around 18% in the last year, Sonoco Products shareholders lost 15% (even including dividends). Even the share prices of good stocks drop sometimes, but we want to see improvements in the fundamental metrics of a business, before getting too interested. Longer term investors wouldn't be so upset, since they would have made 0.2%, 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 Sonoco Products better, we need to consider many other factors. To that end, you should learn about the 4 warning signs we've spotted with Sonoco Products (including 2 which are concerning) .

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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 American exchanges.