Yahoo Finance Should Weakness in Alcon Inc.'s (VTX:ALC) Stock Be Seen As A Sign That Market Will Correct The Share Price Given Decent Financials?
Alcon (VTX:ALC) has had a rough week with its share price down 3.3%. 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. Particularly, we will be paying attention to Alcon's ROE today.
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. In short, ROE shows the profit each dollar generates with respect to its shareholder investments.
See our latest analysis for Alcon
How Is ROE Calculated?
ROE can be calculated by using the formula:
Return on Equity = Net Profit (from continuing operations) ÷ Shareholders' Equity
So, based on the above formula, the ROE for Alcon is:
1.8% = US$362m ÷ US$20b (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2023).
The 'return' is the income the business earned over the last year. That means that for every CHF1 worth of shareholders' equity, the company generated CHF0.02 in profit.
What Is The Relationship Between ROE And Earnings Growth?
Thus far, we have learned that ROE measures how efficiently a company is generating its profits. 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. 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.
Alcon's Earnings Growth And 1.8% ROE
As you can see, Alcon's ROE looks pretty weak. Not just that, even compared to the industry average of 17%, the company's ROE is entirely unremarkable. Despite this, surprisingly, Alcon saw an exceptional 51% net income growth over the past five years. We believe that there might be other aspects that are positively influencing the company's earnings growth. Such as - high earnings retention or an efficient management in place.
Next, on comparing with the industry net income growth, we found that Alcon's growth is quite high when compared to the industry average growth of 11% in the same period, which is great to see.
Earnings growth is a huge factor in stock valuation. 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 ALC fairly valued? This infographic on the company's intrinsic value has everything you need to know.
Is Alcon Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?
Alcon's three-year median payout ratio to shareholders is 24%, which is quite low. This implies that the company is retaining 76% of its profits. This suggests that the management is reinvesting most of the profits to grow the business as evidenced by the growth seen by the company.
Along with seeing a growth in earnings, Alcon only recently started paying dividends. Its quite possible that the company was looking to impress its shareholders. Upon studying the latest analysts' consensus data, we found that the company's future payout ratio is expected to drop to 10% over the next three years. As a result, the expected drop in Alcon's payout ratio explains the anticipated rise in the company's future ROE to 8.8%, over the same period.
Summary
Overall, we feel that Alcon certainly does have some positive factors to consider. Even in spite of the low rate of return, the company has posted impressive earnings growth as a result of reinvesting heavily into its business. Having said that, the company's earnings growth is expected to slow down, as forecasted in the current analyst estimates. Are these analysts expectations based on the broad expectations for the industry, or on the company's fundamentals? Click here to be taken to our analyst's forecasts page for the company.
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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.
