Reliance Steel & Aluminum's (NYSE:RS) investors will be pleased with their strong 150% return over the last five years

It might be of some concern to shareholders to see the Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co. (NYSE:RS) share price down 12% in the last month. But in stark contrast, the returns over the last half decade have impressed. Indeed, the share price is up an impressive 124% 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.

Let's take a look at the underlying fundamentals over the longer term, and see if they've been consistent with shareholders returns.

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 flawed but reasonable way to assess how sentiment around a company has changed is to compare the earnings per share (EPS) with the share price.

During five years of share price growth, Reliance Steel & Aluminum achieved compound earnings per share (EPS) growth of 48% per year. This EPS growth is higher than the 18% average annual increase in the share price. 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 5.39.