Yahoo Finance AptarGroup, Inc. (NYSE:ATR) On An Uptrend: Could Fundamentals Be Driving The Stock?
Most readers would already know that AptarGroup's (NYSE:ATR) stock increased by 3.2% over the past month. Given that stock prices are usually aligned with a company's financial performance in the long-term, we decided to investigate if the company's decent financials had a hand to play in the recent price move. In this article, we decided to focus on AptarGroup's ROE.
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. Put another way, it reveals the company's success at turning shareholder investments into profits.
View our latest analysis for AptarGroup
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 AptarGroup is:
12% = US$239m ÷ US$2.0b (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2021).
The 'return' is the income the business earned over the last year. One way to conceptualize this is that for each $1 of shareholders' capital it has, the company made $0.12 in profit.
Why Is ROE Important For 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 all else is equal, companies that have both a higher return on equity and higher profit retention are usually the ones that have a higher growth rate when compared to companies that don't have the same features.
A Side By Side comparison of AptarGroup's Earnings Growth And 12% ROE
At first glance, AptarGroup seems to have a decent ROE. Even so, when compared with the average industry ROE of 17%, we aren't very excited. Additionally, the low net income growth of 2.6% seen by AptarGroup over the past five years doesn't paint a very bright picture. Not to forget, the company does have a decent ROE to begin with, just that it is lower than the industry average. Hence there might be some other aspects that are keeping growth in earnings low. Such as, the company pays out a huge portion of its earnings as dividends, or is facing competitive pressures.
As a next step, we compared AptarGroup'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 2.9% in the same period.
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. This then helps them determine if the stock is placed for a bright or bleak future. Is AptarGroup fairly valued compared to other companies? These 3 valuation measures might help you decide.
Is AptarGroup Using Its Retained Earnings Effectively?
Despite having a moderate three-year median payout ratio of 40% (implying that the company retains the remaining 60% of its income), AptarGroup's earnings growth was quite low. So there might be other factors at play here which could potentially be hampering growth. For example, the business has faced some headwinds.
In addition, AptarGroup has been paying dividends over a period of at least ten years suggesting that keeping up dividend payments is way more important to the management even if it comes at the cost of business growth. Existing analyst estimates suggest that the company's future payout ratio is expected to drop to 32% over the next three years. Accordingly, the expected drop in the payout ratio explains the expected increase in the company's ROE to 15%, over the same period.
Conclusion
Overall, we feel that AptarGroup certainly does have some positive factors to consider. Particularly, its earnings have grown respectably as we saw earlier, which was likely achieved due to the company reinvesting most of its earnings at a decent rate of return, to grow its business. With that said, the latest industry analyst forecasts reveal that the company's earnings are expected to accelerate. To know more about the latest analysts predictions for the company, check out this visualization of analyst forecasts for the company.
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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