It hasn't been the best quarter for Avis Budget Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CAR) shareholders, since the share price has fallen 24% in that time. But that scarcely detracts from the really solid long term returns generated by the company over five years. It's fair to say most would be happy with 173% the gain in that time. So while it's never fun to see a share price fall, it's important to look at a longer time horizon. Of course, that doesn't necessarily mean it's cheap now. Unfortunately not all shareholders will have held it for the long term, so spare a thought for those caught in the 60% decline over the last twelve months.

The past week has proven to be lucrative for Avis Budget Group investors, so let's see if fundamentals drove the company's five-year performance.

Check out our latest analysis for Avis Budget Group

While markets are a powerful pricing mechanism, share prices reflect investor sentiment, not just 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.

During five years of share price growth, Avis Budget Group achieved compound earnings per share (EPS) growth of 54% per year. The EPS growth is more impressive than the yearly share price gain of 22% over the same period. So it seems the market isn't so enthusiastic about the stock these days. This cautious sentiment is reflected in its (fairly low) P/E ratio of 3.60.

The company's earnings per share (over time) is depicted in the image below (click to see the exact numbers).

It is of course excellent to see how Avis Budget Group has grown profits over the years, but the future is more important for shareholders. Take a more thorough look at Avis Budget Group's financial health with this free report on its balance sheet.

What About The Total Shareholder Return (TSR)?

We've already covered Avis Budget Group's share price action, but we should also mention its total shareholder return (TSR). The TSR attempts to capture the value of dividends (as if they were reinvested) as well as any spin-offs or discounted capital raisings offered to shareholders. We note that Avis Budget Group's TSR, at 187% is higher than its share price return of 173%. When you consider it hasn't been paying a dividend, this data suggests shareholders have benefitted from a spin-off, or had the opportunity to acquire attractively priced shares in a discounted capital raising.