It's easy to match the overall market return by buying an index fund. But if you buy individual stocks, you can do both better or worse than that. For example, the Elanor Commercial Property Fund (ASX:ECF) share price is down 13% in the last year. That falls noticeably short of the market decline of around 1.5%. Because Elanor Commercial Property Fund hasn't been listed for many years, the market is still learning about how the business performs.

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 Elanor Commercial Property Fund

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 way to examine how market sentiment has changed over time is to look at the interaction between a company's share price and its earnings per share (EPS).

Even though the Elanor Commercial Property Fund share price is down over the year, its EPS actually improved. It's quite possible that growth expectations may have been unreasonable in the past.

It's fair to say that the share price does not seem to be reflecting the EPS growth. So it's easy to justify a look at some other metrics.

Vibrant companies don't usually cut their dividends, so the recent reduction might help explain why the Elanor Commercial Property Fund share price has been weak.

The graphic below depicts how earnings and revenue have changed over time (unveil the exact values by clicking on the image).

We know that Elanor Commercial Property Fund has improved its bottom line lately, but what does the future have in store? So we recommend checking out this free report showing consensus forecasts

What About Dividends?

When looking at investment returns, it is important to consider the difference between total shareholder return (TSR) and share price return. 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. It's fair to say that the TSR gives a more complete picture for stocks that pay a dividend. In the case of Elanor Commercial Property Fund, it has a TSR of -3.5% for the last 1 year. That exceeds its share price return that we previously mentioned. And there's no prize for guessing that the dividend payments largely explain the divergence!

A Different Perspective

Elanor Commercial Property Fund shareholders are down 3.5% for the year (even including dividends), even worse than the market loss of 1.5%. There's no doubt that's a disappointment, but the stock may well have fared better in a stronger market. Notably, the loss over the last year isn't as bad as the 9.7% drop in the last three months. This probably signals that the business has recently disappointed shareholders - it will take time to win them back. 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. Even so, be aware that Elanor Commercial Property Fund is showing 5 warning signs in our investment analysis , and 3 of those are a bit unpleasant...

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