Yahoo Finance NZME Limited's (NZSE:NZM) Fundamentals Look Pretty Strong: Could The Market Be Wrong About The Stock?
NZME (NZSE:NZM) has had a rough three months with its share price down 15%. But if you pay close attention, you might find that its key financial indicators look quite decent, which could mean that the stock could potentially rise in the long-term given how markets usually reward more resilient long-term fundamentals. Specifically, we decided to study NZME's ROE in this article.
ROE or return on equity is a useful tool to assess how effectively a company can generate returns on the investment it received from its shareholders. Simply put, it is used to assess the profitability of a company in relation to its equity capital.
Check out our latest analysis for NZME
How To 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 NZME is:
9.2% = NZ$12m ÷ NZ$132m (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2023).
The 'return' refers to a company's earnings over the last year. Another way to think of that is that for every NZ$1 worth of equity, the company was able to earn NZ$0.09 in profit.
What Has ROE Got To Do With Earnings Growth?
We have already established that ROE serves as an efficient profit-generating gauge for a company's future earnings. Depending on how much of these profits the company reinvests or "retains", and how effectively it does so, we are then able to assess a company’s earnings growth potential. Assuming everything else remains unchanged, the higher the ROE and profit retention, the higher the growth rate of a company compared to companies that don't necessarily bear these characteristics.
A Side By Side comparison of NZME's Earnings Growth And 9.2% ROE
At first glance, NZME's ROE doesn't look very promising. However, the fact that the its ROE is quite higher to the industry average of 7.7% doesn't go unnoticed by us. Especially when you consider NZME's exceptional 46% net income growth over the past five years. Bear in mind, the company does have a moderately low ROE. It is just that the industry ROE is lower. Therefore, the growth in earnings could also be the result of other factors. Such as- high earnings retention or the company belonging to a high growth industry.
Next, on comparing with the industry net income growth, we found that NZME's growth is quite high when compared to the industry average growth of 21% in the same period, which is great to see.
Earnings growth is an important metric to consider when valuing a stock. It’s important for an investor to know whether the market has priced in the company's expected earnings growth (or decline). By doing so, they will have an idea if the stock is headed into clear blue waters or if swampy waters await. Is NZME fairly valued compared to other companies? These 3 valuation measures might help you decide.
Is NZME Making Efficient Use Of Its Profits?
NZME has a significant three-year median payout ratio of 50%, meaning the company only retains 50% of its income. This implies that the company has been able to achieve high earnings growth despite returning most of its profits to shareholders.
Besides, NZME has been paying dividends over a period of eight years. This shows that the company is committed to sharing profits with its shareholders. Looking at the current analyst consensus data, we can see that the company's future payout ratio is expected to rise to 78% over the next three years. Still, forecasts suggest that NZME's future ROE will rise to 18% even though the the company's payout ratio is expected to rise. We presume that there could some other characteristics of the business that could be driving the anticipated growth in the company's ROE.
Summary
Overall, we feel that NZME certainly does have some positive factors to consider. Especially the substantial growth in earnings backed by a decent ROE. Despite the company reinvesting only a small portion of its profits, it still has managed to grow its earnings so that is appreciable. Having said that, the company's earnings growth is expected to slow down, as forecasted in the current analyst estimates. 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.
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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. 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.
