While Tethys Petroleum Limited (CVE:TPL) shareholders are probably generally happy, the stock hasn't had particularly good run recently, with the share price falling 16% in the last quarter. On the bright side the share price is up over the last half decade. However we are not very impressed because the share price is only up 35%, less than the market return of 61%.

So let's investigate and see if the longer term performance of the company has been in line with the underlying business' progress.

See our latest analysis for Tethys Petroleum

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 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 the five years of share price growth, Tethys Petroleum moved from a loss to profitability. That's generally thought to be a genuine positive, so investors may expect to see an increasing share price.

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

Dive deeper into Tethys Petroleum's key metrics by checking this interactive graph of Tethys Petroleum's earnings, revenue and cash flow.

What About The Total Shareholder Return (TSR)?

Investors should note that there's a difference between Tethys Petroleum's total shareholder return (TSR) and its share price change, which we've covered above. 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. Its history of dividend payouts mean that Tethys Petroleum's TSR of 44% over the last 5 years is better than the share price return.

A Different Perspective

Tethys Petroleum shareholders are up 12% for the year. Unfortunately this falls short of the market return. The silver lining is that the gain was actually better than the average annual return of 8% per year over five year. It is possible that returns will improve along with the business fundamentals. 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 Tethys Petroleum is showing 3 warning signs in our investment analysis , and 1 of those is a bit concerning...