Yahoo Finance Is The Market Rewarding Young & Co.'s Brewery, P.L.C. (LON:YNGA) With A Negative Sentiment As A Result Of Its Mixed Fundamentals?
It is hard to get excited after looking at Young's Brewery's (LON:YNGA) recent performance, when its stock has declined 9.6% over the past month. It seems that the market might have completely ignored the positive aspects of the company's fundamentals and decided to weigh-in more on the negative aspects. Fundamentals usually dictate market outcomes so it makes sense to study the company's financials. Particularly, we will be paying attention to Young's Brewery'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. Put another way, it reveals the company's success at turning shareholder investments into profits.
See our latest analysis for Young's Brewery
How Do You 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 Young's Brewery is:
4.7% = UK£34m ÷ UK£708m (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2022).
The 'return' is the profit over the last twelve months. Another way to think of that is that for every £1 worth of equity, the company was able to earn £0.05 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. 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 Young's Brewery's Earnings Growth And 4.7% ROE
On the face of it, Young's Brewery's ROE is not much to talk about. We then compared the company's ROE to the broader industry and were disappointed to see that the ROE is lower than the industry average of 12%. For this reason, Young's Brewery's five year net income decline of 26% is not surprising given its lower ROE. We reckon that there could also be other factors at play here. Such as - low earnings retention or poor allocation of capital.
As a next step, we compared Young's Brewery's performance with the industry and found thatYoung's Brewery's performance is depressing even when compared with the industry, which has shrunk its earnings at a rate of 6.5% in the same period, which is a slower than the company.
The basis for attaching value to a company is, to a great extent, tied to its earnings growth. 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. What is YNGA worth today? The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether YNGA is currently mispriced by the market.
Is Young's Brewery Using Its Retained Earnings Effectively?
In spite of a normal three-year median payout ratio of 34% (that is, a retention ratio of 66%), the fact that Young's Brewery's earnings have shrunk is quite puzzling. It looks like there might be some other reasons to explain the lack in that respect. For example, the business could be in decline.
Moreover, Young's Brewery has been paying dividends for at least ten years or more suggesting that management must have perceived that the shareholders prefer dividends over earnings growth. Our latest analyst data shows that the future payout ratio of the company over the next three years is expected to be approximately 34%. Accordingly, forecasts suggest that Young's Brewery's future ROE will be 5.2% which is again, similar to the current ROE.
Summary
On the whole, we feel that the performance shown by Young's Brewery can be open to many interpretations. Even though it appears to be retaining most of its profits, given the low ROE, investors may not be benefitting from all that reinvestment after all. The low earnings growth suggests our theory correct. Wrapping up, we would proceed with caution with this company and one way of doing that would be to look at the risk profile of the business. To know the 1 risk we have identified for Young's Brewery visit our risks dashboard for free.
Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.
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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