Yahoo Finance Antofagasta plc's (LON:ANTO) Stock On An Uptrend: Could Fundamentals Be Driving The Momentum?
Antofagasta (LON:ANTO) has had a great run on the share market with its stock up by a significant 14% over the last three months. As most would know, fundamentals are what usually guide market price movements over the long-term, so we decided to look at the company's key financial indicators today to determine if they have any role to play in the recent price movement. Particularly, we will be paying attention to Antofagasta's 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. Simply put, it is used to assess the profitability of a company in relation to its equity capital.
View our latest analysis for Antofagasta
How Is ROE Calculated?
Return on equity 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 Antofagasta is:
6.1% = US$598m ÷ US$9.8b (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2020).
The 'return' is the profit over the last twelve months. So, this means that for every £1 of its shareholder's investments, the company generates a profit of £0.06.
Why Is ROE Important For Earnings Growth?
So far, we've learned that ROE is a measure of a company's profitability. 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. 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.
A Side By Side comparison of Antofagasta's Earnings Growth And 6.1% ROE
On the face of it, Antofagasta's ROE is not much to talk about. Next, when compared to the average industry ROE of 17%, the company's ROE leaves us feeling even less enthusiastic. In spite of this, Antofagasta was able to grow its net income considerably, at a rate of 31% in the last five years. So, 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.
As a next step, we compared Antofagasta's net income growth with the industry and found that the company has a similar growth figure when compared with the industry average growth rate of 30% in the same period.
Earnings growth is a huge factor in stock valuation. The investor should try to establish if the expected growth or decline in earnings, whichever the case may be, is priced in. By doing so, they will have an idea if the stock is headed into clear blue waters or if swampy waters await. What is ANTO worth today? The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether ANTO is currently mispriced by the market.
Is Antofagasta Using Its Retained Earnings Effectively?
The high three-year median payout ratio of 70% (implying that it keeps only 30% of profits) for Antofagasta suggests that the company's growth wasn't really hampered despite it returning most of the earnings to its shareholders.
Additionally, Antofagasta 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. Our latest analyst data shows that the future payout ratio of the company is expected to drop to 48% over the next three years. Regardless, the ROE is not expected to change much for the company despite the lower expected payout ratio.
Conclusion
In total, it does look like Antofagasta has some positive aspects to its business. Namely, its high earnings growth. We do however feel that the earnings growth number could have been even higher, had the company been reinvesting more of its earnings and paid out less dividends. With that said, the latest industry analyst forecasts reveal that the company's earnings growth is expected to slow down. 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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