Yahoo Finance Are Nine Entertainment Co. Holdings Limited's (ASX:NEC) Mixed Financials The Reason For Its Gloomy Performance on The Stock Market?
With its stock down 9.0% over the past three months, it is easy to disregard Nine Entertainment Holdings (ASX:NEC). We, however decided to study the company's financials to determine if they have got anything to do with the price decline. Long-term fundamentals are usually what drive market outcomes, so it's worth paying close attention. Specifically, we decided to study Nine Entertainment Holdings' ROE in this article.
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 short, ROE shows the profit each dollar generates with respect to its shareholder investments.
See our latest analysis for Nine Entertainment Holdings
How Do You Calculate Return On Equity?
The formula for ROE is:
Return on Equity = Net Profit (from continuing operations) ÷ Shareholders' Equity
So, based on the above formula, the ROE for Nine Entertainment Holdings is:
9.4% = AU$184m ÷ AU$2.0b (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2021).
The 'return' refers to a company's earnings over the last year. One way to conceptualize this is that for each A$1 of shareholders' capital it has, the company made A$0.09 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. 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. 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 Nine Entertainment Holdings' Earnings Growth And 9.4% ROE
At first glance, Nine Entertainment Holdings' ROE doesn't look very promising. Next, when compared to the average industry ROE of 14%, the company's ROE leaves us feeling even less enthusiastic. Given the circumstances, the significant decline in net income by 18% seen by Nine Entertainment Holdings over the last five years is not surprising. However, there could also be other factors causing the earnings to decline. For instance, the company has a very high payout ratio, or is faced with competitive pressures.
Furthermore, even when compared to the industry, which has been shrinking its earnings at a rate 6.2% in the same period, we found that Nine Entertainment Holdings' performance is pretty disappointing, as it suggests that the company has been shrunk its earnings at a rate faster than the industry.
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 NEC fairly valued? This infographic on the company's intrinsic value has everything you need to know.
Is Nine Entertainment Holdings Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?
In spite of a normal three-year median payout ratio of 43% (that is, a retention ratio of 57%), the fact that Nine Entertainment Holdings' 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.
Additionally, Nine Entertainment Holdings has paid dividends over a period of seven years, which means that the company's management is rather focused on keeping up its dividend payments, regardless of the shrinking earnings. Looking at the current analyst consensus data, we can see that the company's future payout ratio is expected to rise to 71% over the next three years. Still, forecasts suggest that Nine Entertainment Holdings' future ROE will rise to 16% even though the the company's payout ratio is expected to rise. We presume that there could some other characteristics of the business that could be driving the anticipated growth in the company's ROE.
Conclusion
In total, we're a bit ambivalent about Nine Entertainment Holdings' performance. While the company does have a high rate of reinvestment, the low ROE means that all that reinvestment is not reaping any benefit to its investors, and moreover, its having a negative impact on the earnings growth. Having said that, looking at current analyst estimates, we found that the company's earnings growth rate is expected to see a huge improvement. 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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