These days it's easy to simply buy an index fund, and your returns should (roughly) match the market. But one can do better than that by picking better than average stocks (as part of a diversified portfolio). For example, the Siebert Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:SIEB) share price is up 74% in the last 1 year, clearly besting the market return of around 25% (not including dividends). That's a solid performance by our standards! Also impressive, the stock is up 53% 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 Siebert Financial

There is no denying that markets are sometimes efficient, but prices do not always reflect underlying business performance. 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.

During the last year Siebert Financial grew its earnings per share (EPS) by 61%. We note that the earnings per share growth isn't far from the share price growth (of 74%). So this implies that investor expectations of the company have remained pretty steady. It makes intuitive sense that the share price and EPS would grow at similar rates.

The company's earnings per share (over time) is depicted in the image below (click to see the exact numbers).

It might be well worthwhile taking a look at our free report on Siebert Financial's earnings, revenue and cash flow.

A Different Perspective

We're pleased to report that Siebert Financial shareholders have received a total shareholder return of 74% over one year. That certainly beats the loss of about 10% per year over the last half decade. This makes us a little wary, but the business might have turned around its fortunes. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Siebert Financial better, we need to consider many other factors. To that end, you should be aware of the 1 warning sign we've spotted with Siebert Financial .

For those who like to find winning investments this free list of undervalued companies with recent insider purchasing, could be just the ticket.

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.