For many, the main point of investing in the stock market is to achieve spectacular returns. While not every stock performs well, when investors win, they can win big. To wit, the Green Brick Partners, Inc. (NYSE:GRBK) share price has soared 609% over five years. This just goes to show the value creation that some businesses can achieve. Also pleasing for shareholders was the 32% gain in the last three months. We love happy stories like this one. The company should be really proud of that performance!

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

View our latest analysis for Green Brick Partners

There is no denying that markets are sometimes efficient, but prices do not always reflect underlying business performance. By comparing earnings per share (EPS) and share price changes over time, we can get a feel for how investor attitudes to a company have morphed over time.

Over half a decade, Green Brick Partners managed to grow its earnings per share at 48% a year. This EPS growth is remarkably close to the 48% average annual increase in the share price. This indicates that investor sentiment towards the company has not changed a great deal. In fact, the share price seems to largely reflect the EPS growth.

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

We like that insiders have been buying shares in the last twelve months. Even so, future earnings will be far more important to whether current shareholders make money. It might be well worthwhile taking a look at our free report on Green Brick Partners' earnings, revenue and cash flow.

A Different Perspective

It's nice to see that Green Brick Partners shareholders have received a total shareholder return of 69% over the last year. Since the one-year TSR is better than the five-year TSR (the latter coming in at 48% per year), it would seem that the stock's performance has improved in recent times. Given the share price momentum remains strong, it might be worth taking a closer look at the stock, lest you miss an opportunity. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Green Brick Partners better, we need to consider many other factors. Even so, be aware that Green Brick Partners is showing 2 warning signs in our investment analysis , and 1 of those shouldn't be ignored...

If you like to buy stocks alongside management, then you might just love this free list of companies. (Hint: most of them are flying under the radar).