Pinnacle Financial Partners (NASDAQ:PNFP) jumps 3.3% this week, though earnings growth is still tracking behind three-year shareholder returns

By buying an index fund, you can roughly match the market return with ease. But if you pick the right individual stocks, you could make more than that. For example, the Pinnacle Financial Partners, Inc. (NASDAQ:PNFP) share price is up 37% in the last three years, clearly besting the market return of around 25% (not including dividends).

Since the stock has added US$202m to its market cap in the past week alone, let's see if underlying performance has been driving long-term returns.

Check out our latest analysis for Pinnacle Financial Partners

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...' 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.

Pinnacle Financial Partners was able to grow its EPS at 11% per year over three years, sending the share price higher. This EPS growth is remarkably close to the 11% average annual increase in the share price. This suggests that sentiment and expectations have not changed drastically. Au contraire, the share price change has arguably mimicked the EPS growth.

You can see below how EPS has changed over time (discover the exact values by clicking on the image).

We know that Pinnacle Financial Partners has improved its bottom line lately, but is it going to grow revenue? You could check out this free report showing analyst revenue forecasts.