The most you can lose on any stock (assuming you don't use leverage) is 100% of your money. But when you pick a company that is really flourishing, you can make more than 100%. For example, the Wee Hur Holdings Ltd. (SGX:E3B) share price has soared 155% in the last three years. That sort of return is as solid as granite. Also pleasing for shareholders was the 80% gain in the last three months.

So let's investigate and see if the longer term performance of the company has been in line with the underlying business' progress.

In his essay The Superinvestors of Graham-and-Doddsville Warren Buffett described how share prices do not always rationally reflect the value of a business. By comparing earnings per share (EPS) and share price changes over time, we can get a feel for how investor attitudes to a company have morphed over time.

Wee Hur Holdings became profitable within the last three years. Given the importance of this milestone, it's not overly surprising that the share price has increased strongly.

What About Dividends?

It is important to consider the total shareholder return, as well as the share price return, for any given stock. 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. We note that for Wee Hur Holdings the TSR over the last 3 years was 177%, which is better than the share price return mentioned above. This is largely a result of its dividend payments!

A Different Perspective

It's nice to see that Wee Hur Holdings shareholders have received a total shareholder return of 162% over the last year. That's including the dividend. That's better than the annualised return of 22% over half a decade, implying that the company is doing better recently. 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 Wee Hur Holdings better, we need to consider many other factors.