If you buy and hold a stock for many years, youd hope to be making a profit. But more than that, you probably want to see it rise more than the market average. But One Liberty Properties, Inc. (NYSE:OLP) has fallen short of that second goal, with a share price rise of 23% over five years, which is below the market return. But if you include dividends then the return is market-beating. Zooming in, the stock is up a respectable 8.8% in the last year.

See our latest analysis for One Liberty Properties

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 imperfect but simple way to consider how the market perception of a company has shifted is to compare the change in the earnings per share (EPS) with the share price movement.

Over half a decade, One Liberty Properties managed to grow its earnings per share at 0.6% a year. This EPS growth is slower than the share price growth of 4.2% per year, over the same period. So its fair to assume the market has a higher opinion of the business than it did five years ago. And thats hardly shocking given the track record of growth.

The companys earnings per share (over time) are depicted in the image below.

This free interactive report on One Liberty Propertiess earnings, revenue and cash flow is a great place to start, if you want to investigate the stock further.

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. We note that for One Liberty Properties the TSR over the last 5 years was 73%, which is better than the share price return mentioned above. This is largely a result of its dividend payments!

One Liberty Propertiess TSR for the year was broadly in line with the market average, at 16%. That gain looks pretty satisfying, and it is even better than the five-year TSR of 12% per year. Even if the share price growth slows down from here, theres a good chance that this is business worth watching in the long term. If you would like to research One Liberty Properties in more detail then you might want to take a look at whether insiders have been buying or selling shares in the company.

But note: One Liberty Properties may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies with past earnings growth (and further growth forecast).

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on US exchanges.

We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.

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If You Had Bought One Liberty Properties (NYSE:OLP) Shares Five Years Ago Youd Have Made 23% - Simply Wall St