While not a mind-blowing move, it is good to see that the Alexander & Baldwin, Inc. (NYSE:ALEX) share price has gained 15% in the last three months. But over the last half decade, the stock has not performed well. After all, the share price is down 22% in that time, significantly under-performing the market.

Since shareholders are down over the longer term, lets look at the underlying fundamentals over the that time and see if they've been consistent with returns.

View our latest analysis for Alexander & Baldwin

To paraphrase Benjamin Graham: Over the short term the market is a voting machine, but over the long term it's a weighing machine. 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 five years of share price growth, Alexander & Baldwin moved from a loss to profitability. Most would consider that to be a good thing, so it's counter-intuitive to see the share price declining. Other metrics might give us a better handle on how its value is changing over time.

We note that the dividend has remained healthy, so that wouldn't really explain the share price drop. However, revenue has declined at a compound annual rate of 22% per year. With dividends up, but revenue down, some investors might be concluding that the company is no longer growing.

The company's revenue and earnings (over time) are depicted in the image below (click to see the exact numbers).

We're pleased to report that the CEO is remunerated more modestly than most CEOs at similarly capitalized companies. It's always worth keeping an eye on CEO pay, but a more important question is whether the company will grow earnings throughout the years. This free report showing analyst forecasts should help you form a view on Alexander & Baldwin

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 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. As it happens, Alexander & Baldwin's TSR for the last 5 years was -7.1%, which exceeds the share price return mentioned earlier. This is largely a result of its dividend payments!

A Different Perspective

Alexander & Baldwin provided a TSR of 18% over the last twelve months. But that return falls short of the market. But at least that's still a gain! Over five years the TSR has been a reduction of 1.4% per year, over five years. It could well be that the business is stabilizing. 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. For example, we've discovered 3 warning signs for Alexander & Baldwin (1 shouldn't be ignored!) that you should be aware of before investing here.