Yahoo Finance Has Associated British Foods plc's (LON:ABF) Impressive Stock Performance Got Anything to Do With Its Fundamentals?
Associated British Foods' (LON:ABF) stock is up by a considerable 13% over the past month. We wonder if and what role the company's financials play in that price change as a company's long-term fundamentals usually dictate market outcomes. Particularly, we will be paying attention to Associated British Foods' ROE today.
Return on equity or ROE is an important factor to be considered by a shareholder because it tells them how effectively their capital is being reinvested. In other words, it is a profitability ratio which measures the rate of return on the capital provided by the company's shareholders.
Check out our latest analysis for Associated British Foods
How Do You Calculate Return On Equity?
The formula for return on equity is:
Return on Equity = Net Profit (from continuing operations) ÷ Shareholders' Equity
So, based on the above formula, the ROE for Associated British Foods is:
7.9% = UK£720m ÷ UK£9.1b (Based on the trailing twelve months to February 2020).
The 'return' is the income the business earned over the last year. Another way to think of that is that for every £1 worth of equity, the company was able to earn £0.08 in profit.
What Is The Relationship Between ROE And Earnings Growth?
We have already established that ROE serves as an efficient profit-generating gauge for a company's future earnings. We now need to evaluate how much profit the company reinvests or "retains" for future growth which then gives us an idea about the growth potential of the company. Generally speaking, other things being equal, firms with a high return on equity and profit retention, have a higher growth rate than firms that don’t share these attributes.
Associated British Foods' Earnings Growth And 7.9% ROE
When you first look at it, Associated British Foods' ROE doesn't look that attractive. A quick further study shows that the company's ROE doesn't compare favorably to the industry average of 10% either. However, the moderate 7.8% net income growth seen by Associated British Foods over the past five years is definitely a positive. We reckon that there could be other factors at play here. For example, it is possible that the company's management has made some good strategic decisions, or that the company has a low payout ratio.
Next, on comparing with the industry net income growth, we found that Associated British Foods' reported growth was lower than the industry growth of 9.8% in the same period, which is not something we like to see.
The basis for attaching value to a company is, to a great extent, tied to its earnings growth. What investors need to determine next is if the expected earnings growth, or the lack of it, is already built into the share price. Doing so will help them establish if the stock's future looks promising or ominous. Is ABF fairly valued? This infographic on the company's intrinsic value has everything you need to know.
Is Associated British Foods Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?
Associated British Foods has a healthy combination of a moderate three-year median payout ratio of 37% (or a retention ratio of 63%) and a respectable amount of growth in earnings as we saw above, meaning that the company has been making efficient use of its profits.
Our latest analyst data shows that the future payout ratio of the company over the next three years is expected to be approximately 38%. Regardless, the future ROE for Associated British Foods is predicted to rise to 10% despite there being not much change expected in its payout ratio.
Summary
On the whole, we do feel that Associated British Foods has some positive attributes. That is, a decent growth in earnings backed by a high rate of reinvestment. However, we do feel that that earnings growth could have been higher if the business were to improve on the low ROE rate. Especially given how the company is reinvesting a huge chunk of its profits. Having said that, looking at the current analyst estimates, we found that the company's earnings are expected to gain momentum. To know more about the company's future earnings growth forecasts take a look at this free report on analyst forecasts for the company to find out more.
This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
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