One simple way to benefit from the stock market is to buy an index fund. But if you pick the right individual stocks, you could make more than that. For example, the GuocoLand (Malaysia) Berhad (KLSE:GUOCO) share price is up 30% in the last three years, clearly besting the market decline of around 8.2% (not including dividends). On the other hand, the returns haven't been quite so good recently, with shareholders up just 3.6% , including dividends .

Let's take a look at the underlying fundamentals over the longer term, and see if they've been consistent with shareholders returns.

View our latest analysis for GuocoLand (Malaysia) Berhad

There is no denying that markets are sometimes efficient, but prices do not always reflect underlying business performance. 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 three years of share price growth, GuocoLand (Malaysia) Berhad moved from a loss to profitability. That would generally be considered a positive, so we'd expect the share price to be up.

You can see below how EPS has changed over time (discover the exact values by clicking on the image).

Dive deeper into GuocoLand (Malaysia) Berhad's key metrics by checking this interactive graph of GuocoLand (Malaysia) Berhad's earnings, revenue and cash flow.

What About Dividends?

As well as measuring the share price return, investors should also consider the total shareholder return (TSR). The TSR is a return calculation that accounts for the value of cash dividends (assuming that any dividend received was reinvested) and the calculated value of any discounted capital raisings and spin-offs. Arguably, the TSR gives a more comprehensive picture of the return generated by a stock. In the case of GuocoLand (Malaysia) Berhad, it has a TSR of 41% 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

GuocoLand (Malaysia) Berhad shareholders gained a total return of 3.6% during the year. Unfortunately this falls short of the market return. The silver lining is that the gain was actually better than the average annual return of 0.7% per year over five year. This could indicate that the company is winning over new investors, as it pursues its strategy. While it is well worth considering the different impacts that market conditions can have on the share price, there are other factors that are even more important. Case in point: We've spotted 1 warning sign for GuocoLand (Malaysia) Berhad you should be aware of.