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James Hardie Industries plc's (ASX:JHX) Stock's On An Uptrend: Are Strong Financials Guiding The Market?

James Hardie Industries' (ASX:JHX) stock is up by a considerable 17% over the past three months. Since the market usually pay for a company’s long-term fundamentals, we decided to study the company’s key performance indicators to see if they could be influencing the market. In this article, we decided to focus on James Hardie Industries' ROE.

Return on Equity or ROE is a test of how effectively a company is growing its value and managing investors’ money. In simpler terms, it measures the profitability of a company in relation to shareholder's equity.

See our latest analysis for James Hardie Industries

How Do You Calculate Return On Equity?

The formula for ROE is:

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Return on Equity = Net Profit (from continuing operations) ÷ Shareholders' Equity

So, based on the above formula, the ROE for James Hardie Industries is:

32% = US$512m ÷ US$1.6b (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 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$0.32 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 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 James Hardie Industries' Earnings Growth And 32% ROE

To begin with, James Hardie Industries has a pretty high ROE which is interesting. Second, a comparison with the average ROE reported by the industry of 13% also doesn't go unnoticed by us. So, the substantial 26% net income growth seen by James Hardie Industries over the past five years isn't overly surprising.

Next, on comparing with the industry net income growth, we found that the growth figure reported by James Hardie Industries compares quite favourably to the industry average, which shows a decline of 1.0% in the same period.

past-earnings-growth
past-earnings-growth

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. What is JHX worth today? The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether JHX is currently mispriced by the market.

Is James Hardie Industries Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?

The three-year median payout ratio for James Hardie Industries is 27%, which is moderately low. The company is retaining the remaining 73%. So it seems that James Hardie Industries is reinvesting efficiently in a way that it sees impressive growth in its earnings (discussed above) and pays a dividend that's well covered.

Additionally, James Hardie Industries has paid dividends over a period of at least ten years which means that the company is pretty serious about sharing its profits with shareholders. Our latest analyst data shows that the future payout ratio of the company is expected to drop to 18% 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 feel that James Hardie Industries' performance has been quite good. Specifically, we like that the company is reinvesting a huge chunk of its profits at a high rate of return. This of course has caused the company to see substantial growth in its earnings. Having said that, the company's earnings growth is expected to slow down, as forecasted in the current analyst estimates. To know more about the latest analysts predictions for the company, check out this visualization of analyst forecasts for the company.

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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