The simplest way to invest in stocks is to buy exchange traded funds. But you can significantly boost your returns by picking above-average stocks. For example, the Cushman & Wakefield plc (NYSE:CWK) share price is up 76% in the last 1 year, clearly besting the market return of around 32% (not including dividends). That's a solid performance by our standards! Zooming out, the stock is actually down 31% in the last three years.

While this past week has detracted from the company's one-year return, let's look at the recent trends of the underlying business and see if the gains have been in alignment.

See our latest analysis for Cushman & Wakefield

We don't think that Cushman & Wakefield's modest trailing twelve month profit has the market's full attention at the moment. We think revenue is probably a better guide. As a general rule, we think this kind of company is more comparable to loss-making stocks, since the actual profit is so low. For shareholders to have confidence a company will grow profits significantly, it must grow revenue.

Cushman & Wakefield actually shrunk its revenue over the last year, with a reduction of 5.2%. Despite the lack of revenue growth, the stock has returned a solid 76% the last twelve months. We can correlate the share price rise with revenue or profit growth, but it seems the market had previously expected weaker results, and sentiment around the stock is improving.

The image below shows how earnings and revenue have tracked over time (if you click on the image you can see greater detail).

We know that Cushman & Wakefield has improved its bottom line lately, but what does the future have in store? If you are thinking of buying or selling Cushman & Wakefield stock, you should check out this free report showing analyst profit forecasts.

A Different Perspective

It's nice to see that Cushman & Wakefield shareholders have received a total shareholder return of 76% over the last year. There's no doubt those recent returns are much better than the TSR loss of 5% per year over five years. We generally put more weight on the long term performance over the short term, but the recent improvement could hint at a (positive) inflection point within the business. I find it very interesting to look at share price over the long term as a proxy for business performance. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too. Take risks, for example - Cushman & Wakefield has 2 warning signs (and 1 which is a bit unpleasant) we think you should know about.