Yahoo Finance Is Insurance Australia Group Limited's (ASX:IAG) Recent Stock Performance Influenced By Its Financials In Any Way?
Most readers would already know that Insurance Australia Group's (ASX:IAG) stock increased by 3.5% over the past week. 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. Particularly, we will be paying attention to Insurance Australia Group's ROE today.
Return on equity or ROE is a key measure used to assess how efficiently a company's management is utilizing the company's capital. In other words, it is a profitability ratio which measures the rate of return on the capital provided by the company's shareholders.
Check out our latest analysis for Insurance Australia Group
How To Calculate Return On Equity?
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 Insurance Australia Group is:
10% = AU$696m ÷ AU$6.8b (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2022).
The 'return' is the yearly profit. That means that for every A$1 worth of shareholders' equity, the company generated A$0.10 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. Based on how much of its profits the company chooses to reinvest or "retain", we are then able to evaluate a company's future ability to generate profits. 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.
Insurance Australia Group's Earnings Growth And 10% ROE
At first glance, Insurance Australia Group seems to have a decent ROE. Further, the company's ROE compares quite favorably to the industry average of 7.8%. For this reason, Insurance Australia Group's five year net income decline of 33% raises the question as to why the high ROE didn't translate into earnings growth. Based on this, we feel that there might be other reasons which haven't been discussed so far in this article that could be hampering the company's growth. These include low earnings retention or poor allocation of capital.
However, when we compared Insurance Australia Group's growth with the industry we found that while the company's earnings have been shrinking, the industry has seen an earnings growth of 7.3% in the same period. This is quite worrisome.
Earnings growth is a huge factor in stock valuation. It’s important for an investor to know whether the market has priced in the company's expected earnings growth (or decline). Doing so will help them establish if the stock's future looks promising or ominous. Is IAG fairly valued? This infographic on the company's intrinsic value has everything you need to know.
Is Insurance Australia Group Making Efficient Use Of Its Profits?
Insurance Australia Group's declining earnings is not surprising given how the company is spending most of its profits in paying dividends, judging by its three-year median payout ratio of 54% (or a retention ratio of 46%). With only very little left to reinvest into the business, growth in earnings is far from likely.
Additionally, Insurance Australia Group has paid dividends over a period of at least ten years, which means that the company's management is determined to pay dividends even if it means little to no earnings growth. Upon studying the latest analysts' consensus data, we found that the company's future payout ratio is expected to rise to 77% over the next three years. However, Insurance Australia Group's future ROE is expected to rise to 14% despite the expected increase in the company's payout ratio. We infer that there could be other factors that could be driving the anticipated growth in the company's ROE.
Conclusion
In total, it does look like Insurance Australia Group has some positive aspects to its business. Although, we are disappointed to see a lack of growth in earnings even in spite of a high ROE. Bear in mind, the company reinvests a small portion of its profits, which means that investors aren't reaping the benefits of the high rate of return. With that said, we studied the latest analyst forecasts and found that while the company has shrunk its earnings in the past, analysts expect its earnings to grow in the future. 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.
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