Yahoo Finance BHP Group Limited (ASX:BHP) Stock's Been Sliding But Fundamentals Look Decent: Will The Market Correct The Share Price In The Future?
It is hard to get excited after looking at BHP Group's (ASX:BHP) recent performance, when its stock has declined 5.7% over the past three months. However, stock prices are usually driven by a company’s financials over the long term, which in this case look pretty respectable. Particularly, we will be paying attention to BHP Group's ROE today.
Return on Equity or ROE is a test of how effectively a company is growing its value and managing investors’ money. Put another way, it reveals the company's success at turning shareholder investments into profits.
See our latest analysis for BHP Group
How Do You Calculate Return On Equity?
ROE 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 BHP Group is:
20% = US$8.9b ÷ US$46b (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2023).
The 'return' refers to a company's earnings over the last year. So, this means that for every A$1 of its shareholder's investments, the company generates a profit of A$0.20.
Why Is ROE Important For Earnings Growth?
So far, we've learned that ROE is a measure of a company's profitability. 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 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.
BHP Group's Earnings Growth And 20% ROE
To start with, BHP Group's ROE looks acceptable. Further, the company's ROE compares quite favorably to the industry average of 10%. Probably as a result of this, BHP Group was able to see a decent growth of 13% over the last five years.
We then compared BHP Group's net income growth with the industry and found that the company's growth figure is lower than the average industry growth rate of 21% in the same 5-year period, which is a bit concerning.
Earnings growth is a huge factor in stock valuation. The investor should try to establish if the expected growth or decline in earnings, whichever the case may be, is priced in. By doing so, they will have an idea if the stock is headed into clear blue waters or if swampy waters await. What is BHP worth today? The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether BHP is currently mispriced by the market.
Is BHP Group Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?
The high three-year median payout ratio of 94% (or a retention ratio of 5.6%) for BHP Group suggests that the company's growth wasn't really hampered despite it returning most of its income to its shareholders.
Moreover, BHP Group is determined to keep sharing its profits with shareholders which we infer from its long history of paying a dividend for at least ten years. Existing analyst estimates suggest that the company's future payout ratio is expected to drop to 59% over the next three years. However, the company's ROE is not expected to change by much despite the lower expected payout ratio.
Conclusion
Overall, we feel that BHP Group certainly does have some positive factors to consider. As noted earlier, its earnings growth has been quite decent, and the high ROE does contribute to that growth. Still, the company invests little to almost none of its profits. This could potentially reduce the odds that the company continues to see the same level of growth in the future. We also studied the latest analyst forecasts and found that the company's earnings growth is expected be similar to its current growth rate. To know more about the latest analysts predictions for the company, check out this visualization of analyst forecasts 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.
