Buying shares in the best businesses can build meaningful wealth for you and your family. And highest quality companies can see their share prices grow by huge amounts. For example, the Fabrinet (NYSE:FN) share price is up a whopping 308% in the last half decade, a handsome return for long term holders. If that doesn't get you thinking about long term investing, we don't know what will. On top of that, the share price is up 22% in about a quarter. But this could be related to the strong market, which is up 9.7% in the last three months.

So let's assess the underlying fundamentals over the last 5 years and see if they've moved in lock-step with shareholder returns.

There is no denying that markets are sometimes efficient, but prices do not always reflect underlying business performance. 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, Fabrinet managed to grow its earnings per share at 20% a year. This EPS growth is slower than the share price growth of 32% per year, over the same period. This suggests that market participants hold the company in higher regard, these days. And that's hardly shocking given the track record of growth.

You can see how EPS has changed over time in the image below (click on the chart to see the exact values).

We know that Fabrinet has improved its bottom line lately, but is it going to grow revenue? Check if analysts think Fabrinet will grow revenue in the future.

A Different Perspective

It's good to see that Fabrinet has rewarded shareholders with a total shareholder return of 48% in the last twelve months. Since the one-year TSR is better than the five-year TSR (the latter coming in at 32% per year), it would seem that the stock's performance has improved in recent times. 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 Fabrinet better, we need to consider many other factors. Even so, be aware that Fabrinet is showing 1 warning sign in our investment analysis , you should know about...

If you are like me, then you will not want to miss this free list of undervalued small caps that insiders are buying.

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.