Yahoo Finance Is The Market Rewarding Norman Broadbent plc (LON:NBB) With A Negative Sentiment As A Result Of Its Mixed Fundamentals?
Norman Broadbent (LON:NBB) has had a rough month with its share price down 12%. It seems that the market might have completely ignored the positive aspects of the company's fundamentals and decided to weigh-in more on the negative aspects. Fundamentals usually dictate market outcomes so it makes sense to study the company's financials. Specifically, we decided to study Norman Broadbent's 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. Put another way, it reveals the company's success at turning shareholder investments into profits.
Check out our latest analysis for Norman Broadbent
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 Norman Broadbent is:
6.2% = UK£84k ÷ UK£1.4m (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2019).
The 'return' is the profit over the last twelve months. One way to conceptualize this is that for each £1 of shareholders' capital it has, the company made £0.06 in profit.
What Has ROE Got To Do With Earnings Growth?
We have already established that ROE serves as an efficient profit-generating gauge for a company's future earnings. 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.
Norman Broadbent's Earnings Growth And 6.2% ROE
At first glance, Norman Broadbent's ROE doesn't look very promising. A quick further study shows that the company's ROE doesn't compare favorably to the industry average of 19% either. As a result, Norman Broadbent reported a very low income growth of 3.8% over the past five years.
We then compared Norman Broadbent's net income growth with the industry and found that the company's growth figure is lower than the average industry growth rate of 12% in the same period, which is a bit concerning.
Earnings growth is an important metric to consider when valuing a stock. 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. If you're wondering about Norman Broadbent's's valuation, check out this gauge of its price-to-earnings ratio, as compared to its industry.
Is Norman Broadbent Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?
Norman Broadbent doesn't pay any dividend currently which essentially means that it has been reinvesting all of its profits into the business. However, this doesn't explain the low earnings growth the company has seen. So there could be some other explanation in that regard. For instance, the company's business may be deteriorating.
Conclusion
On the whole, we feel that the performance shown by Norman Broadbent can be open to many interpretations. 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. Wrapping up, we would proceed with caution with this company and one way of doing that would be to look at the risk profile of the business. To know the 2 risks we have identified for Norman Broadbent visit our risks dashboard for free.
This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. 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.
Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com.
