Yahoo Finance Is Weakness In Pioneer Natural Resources Company (NYSE:PXD) Stock A Sign That The Market Could be Wrong Given Its Strong Financial Prospects?
With its stock down 5.3% over the past month, it is easy to disregard Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE:PXD). But if you pay close attention, you might gather that its strong financials could mean that the stock could potentially see an increase in value in the long-term, given how markets usually reward companies with good financial health. Specifically, we decided to study Pioneer Natural Resources' ROE in this article.
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. Put another way, it reveals the company's success at turning shareholder investments into profits.
Check out our latest analysis for Pioneer Natural Resources
How Is ROE Calculated?
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 Pioneer Natural Resources is:
31% = US$7.1b ÷ US$23b (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2022).
The 'return' is the amount earned after tax over the last twelve months. One way to conceptualize this is that for each $1 of shareholders' capital it has, the company made $0.31 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. 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.
Pioneer Natural Resources' Earnings Growth And 31% ROE
First thing first, we like that Pioneer Natural Resources has an impressive ROE. Even when compared to the industry average of 32% the company's ROE is pretty decent. Given the circumstances, the significant 47% net income growth seen by Pioneer Natural Resources over the last five years is not surprising.
As a next step, we compared Pioneer Natural Resources' net income growth with the industry, and pleasingly, we found that the growth seen by the company is higher than the average industry growth of 6.8%.
Earnings growth is an important metric to consider when valuing a stock. What investors need to determine next is if the expected earnings growth, or the lack of it, is already built into the share price. This then helps them determine if the stock is placed for a bright or bleak future. One good indicator of expected earnings growth is the P/E ratio which determines the price the market is willing to pay for a stock based on its earnings prospects. So, you may want to check if Pioneer Natural Resources is trading on a high P/E or a low P/E, relative to its industry.
Is Pioneer Natural Resources Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?
The high three-year median payout ratio of 58% (implying that it keeps only 42% of profits) for Pioneer Natural Resources suggests that the company's growth wasn't really hampered despite it returning most of the earnings to its shareholders.
Additionally, Pioneer Natural Resources has paid dividends over a period of at least ten years which means that the company is pretty serious about sharing its profits with shareholders. Existing analyst estimates suggest that the company's future payout ratio is expected to drop to 28% over the next three years. Regardless, the future ROE for Pioneer Natural Resources is predicted to decline to 17% despite the anticipated decrease in the payout ratio. We reckon that there could probably be other factors that could be driving the forseen decline in the company's ROE.
Summary
In total, we are pretty happy with Pioneer Natural Resources' performance. Especially the high ROE, Which has contributed to the impressive growth seen in earnings. 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, on studying current analyst estimates, we were concerned to see that while the company has grown its earnings in the past, analysts expect its earnings to shrink in the future. 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.
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