Yahoo Finance Do Its Financials Have Any Role To Play In Driving Heineken Holding N.V.'s (AMS:HEIO) Stock Up Recently?
Heineken Holding's (AMS:HEIO) stock is up by a considerable 5.2% over the past month. We wonder if and what role the company's financials play in that price change as a company's long-term fundamentals usually dictate market outcomes. Specifically, we decided to study Heineken Holding's ROE in this article.
Return on Equity or ROE is a test of how effectively a company is growing its value and managing investors’ money. In other words, it is a profitability ratio which measures the rate of return on the capital provided by the company's shareholders.
View our latest analysis for Heineken Holding
How Is ROE Calculated?
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 Heineken Holding is:
18% = €3.8b ÷ €22b (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2022).
The 'return' is the yearly profit. Another way to think of that is that for every €1 worth of equity, the company was able to earn €0.18 in profit.
What Is The Relationship Between ROE And Earnings Growth?
So far, we've learned that ROE is a measure of a company's profitability. 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. 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.
Heineken Holding's Earnings Growth And 18% ROE
To begin with, Heineken Holding seems to have a respectable ROE. Further, the company's ROE compares quite favorably to the industry average of 12%. Yet, Heineken Holding has posted measly growth of 4.2% over the past five years. That's a bit unexpected from a company which has such a high rate of return. A few likely reasons why this could happen is that the company could have a high payout ratio or the business has allocated capital poorly, for instance.
As a next step, we compared Heineken Holding's net income growth with the industry and were disappointed to see that the company's growth is lower than the industry average growth of 8.6% in the same period.
The basis for attaching value to a company is, to a great extent, tied to its earnings growth. The investor should try to establish if the expected growth or decline in earnings, whichever the case may be, is priced in. This then helps them determine if the stock is placed for a bright or bleak future. Is Heineken Holding fairly valued compared to other companies? These 3 valuation measures might help you decide.
Is Heineken Holding Making Efficient Use Of Its Profits?
While Heineken Holding has a decent three-year median payout ratio of 47% (or a retention ratio of 53%), it has seen very little growth in earnings. So there might be other factors at play here which could potentially be hampering growth. For example, the business has faced some headwinds.
Moreover, Heineken Holding 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. Existing analyst estimates suggest that the company's future payout ratio is expected to drop to 30% over the next three years. Regardless, the ROE is not expected to change much for the company despite the lower expected payout ratio.
Conclusion
On the whole, we do feel that Heineken Holding has some positive attributes. However, given the high ROE and high profit retention, we would expect the company to be delivering strong earnings growth, but that isn't the case here. This suggests that there might be some external threat to the business, that's hampering its growth. With that said, the latest industry analyst forecasts reveal that the company's earnings are expected to accelerate. 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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