As an investor its worth striving to ensure your overall portfolio beats the market average. But the risk of stock picking is that you will likely buy under-performing companies. We regret to report that long term Pacific Premier Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:PPBI) shareholders have had that experience, with the share price dropping 39% in three years, versus a market return of about 22%.

It's worthwhile assessing if the company's economics have been moving in lockstep with these underwhelming shareholder returns, or if there is some disparity between the two. So let's do just that.

Check out our latest analysis for Pacific Premier Bancorp

In his essay The Superinvestors of Graham-and-Doddsville Warren Buffett described how share prices do not always rationally reflect the value of a business. 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).

Pacific Premier Bancorp saw its share price decline over the three years in which its EPS also dropped, falling to a loss. Since the company has fallen to a loss making position, it's hard to compare the change in EPS with the share price change. However, we can say we'd expect to see a falling share price in this scenario.

The image below shows how EPS has tracked over time (if you click on the image you can see greater detail).

Before buying or selling a stock, we always recommend a close examination of historic growth trends, available here.

What About Dividends?

It is important to consider the total shareholder return, as well as the share price return, for any given stock. The TSR is a return calculation that accounts for the value of cash dividends (assuming that any dividend received was reinvested) and the calculated value of any discounted capital raisings and spin-offs. It's fair to say that the TSR gives a more complete picture for stocks that pay a dividend. We note that for Pacific Premier Bancorp the TSR over the last 3 years was -30%, which is better than the share price return mentioned above. The dividends paid by the company have thusly boosted the total shareholder return.

A Different Perspective

Pacific Premier Bancorp shareholders have received returns of 39% over twelve months (even including dividends), which isn't far from the general market return. The silver lining is that the share price is up in the short term, which flies in the face of the annualised loss of 0.6% over the last five years. While 'turnarounds seldom turn' there are green shoots for Pacific Premier Bancorp. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Pacific Premier Bancorp better, we need to consider many other factors. For instance, we've identified 2 warning signs for Pacific Premier Bancorp that you should be aware of.