Yahoo Finance oOh!media Limited (ASX:OML) On An Uptrend: Could Fundamentals Be Driving The Stock?
Most readers would already know that oOh!media's (ASX:OML) stock increased by 8.4% over the past three months. As most would know, long-term fundamentals have a strong correlation with market price movements, 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. Specifically, we decided to study oOh!media's ROE in this article.
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. In simpler terms, it measures the profitability of a company in relation to shareholder's equity.
See our latest analysis for oOh!media
How To 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 oOh!media is:
4.7% = AU$35m ÷ AU$741m (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2023).
The 'return' is the profit over the last twelve months. Another way to think of that is that for every A$1 worth of equity, the company was able to earn A$0.05 in profit.
Why Is ROE Important For Earnings Growth?
Thus far, we have learned that ROE measures how efficiently a company is generating its profits. We now need to evaluate how much profit the company reinvests or "retains" for future growth which then gives us an idea about the growth potential of the company. Assuming everything else remains unchanged, the higher the ROE and profit retention, the higher the growth rate of a company compared to companies that don't necessarily bear these characteristics.
oOh!media's Earnings Growth And 4.7% ROE
When you first look at it, oOh!media's ROE doesn't look that attractive. A quick further study shows that the company's ROE doesn't compare favorably to the industry average of 6.3% either. oOh!media was still able to see a decent net income growth of 18% over the past five years. So, the growth in the company's earnings could probably have been caused by other variables. For instance, the company has a low payout ratio or is being managed efficiently.
As a next step, we compared oOh!media'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 18% in the same period.
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). By doing so, they will have an idea if the stock is headed into clear blue waters or if swampy waters await. What is OML worth today? The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether OML is currently mispriced by the market.
Is oOh!media Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?
oOh!media has a significant three-year median payout ratio of 85%, meaning that it is left with only 15% to reinvest into its business. This implies that the company has been able to achieve decent earnings growth despite returning most of its profits to shareholders.
Additionally, oOh!media has paid dividends over a period of nine years which means that the company is pretty serious about sharing its profits with shareholders. Upon studying the latest analysts' consensus data, we found that the company's future payout ratio is expected to drop to 54% over the next three years. Accordingly, the expected drop in the payout ratio explains the expected increase in the company's ROE to 9.6%, over the same period.
Summary
In total, it does look like oOh!media has some positive aspects to its business. That is, quite an impressive growth in earnings. However, the low profit retention means that the company's earnings growth could have been higher, had it been reinvesting a higher portion of its profits. On studying current analyst estimates, we found that analysts expect the company to continue its recent growth streak. 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.
