These days it's easy to simply buy an index fund, and your returns should (roughly) match the market. But you can significantly boost your returns by picking above-average stocks. To wit, the Valuetronics Holdings Limited (SGX:BN2) share price is 16% higher than it was a year ago, much better than the market return of around 3.1% (not including dividends) in the same period. If it can keep that out-performance up over the long term, investors will do very well! The longer term returns have not been as good, with the stock price only 4.4% higher than it was three years ago.

So let's assess the underlying fundamentals over the last 1 year and see if they've moved in lock-step with shareholder returns.

Check out our latest analysis for Valuetronics Holdings

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 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.

Valuetronics Holdings was able to grow EPS by 33% in the last twelve months. It's fair to say that the share price gain of 16% did not keep pace with the EPS growth. So it seems like the market has cooled on Valuetronics Holdings, despite the growth. Interesting. This cautious sentiment is reflected in its (fairly low) P/E ratio of 9.18.

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

We know that Valuetronics Holdings has improved its bottom line lately, but is it going to grow revenue? If you're interested, you could check this free report showing consensus revenue forecasts.

What About Dividends?

As well as measuring the share price return, investors should also consider the total shareholder return (TSR). 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. As it happens, Valuetronics Holdings' TSR for the last 1 year was 24%, which exceeds the share price return mentioned earlier. The dividends paid by the company have thusly boosted the total shareholder return.

A Different Perspective

It's nice to see that Valuetronics Holdings shareholders have received a total shareholder return of 24% over the last year. That's including the dividend. Since the one-year TSR is better than the five-year TSR (the latter coming in at 5% per year), it would seem that the stock's performance has improved in recent times. Given the share price momentum remains strong, it might be worth taking a closer look at the stock, lest you miss an opportunity. 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. Even so, be aware that Valuetronics Holdings is showing 1 warning sign in our investment analysis , you should know about...