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Is Perseus Mining Limited's (ASX:PRU) Recent Stock Performance Tethered To Its Strong Fundamentals?

Perseus Mining (ASX:PRU) has had a great run on the share market with its stock up by a significant 23% over the last month. Given that the market rewards strong financials in the long-term, we wonder if that is the case in this instance. Specifically, we decided to study Perseus Mining'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. Put another way, it reveals the company's success at turning shareholder investments into profits.

See our latest analysis for Perseus Mining

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

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So, based on the above formula, the ROE for Perseus Mining is:

22% = US$353m ÷ US$1.6b (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2023).

The 'return' is the income the business earned over the last year. So, this means that for every A$1 of its shareholder's investments, the company generates a profit of A$0.22.

What Has ROE Got To Do With Earnings Growth?

Thus far, we have learned that ROE measures how efficiently a company is generating its profits. Depending on how much of these profits the company reinvests or "retains", and how effectively it does so, we are then able to assess a company’s earnings growth potential. 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.

Perseus Mining's Earnings Growth And 22% ROE

First thing first, we like that Perseus Mining has an impressive ROE. Second, a comparison with the average ROE reported by the industry of 10% also doesn't go unnoticed by us. As a result, Perseus Mining's exceptional 52% net income growth seen over the past five years, doesn't come as a surprise.

We then compared Perseus Mining's net income growth with the industry and we're pleased to see that the company's growth figure is higher when compared with the industry which has a growth rate of 21% in the same 5-year period.

past-earnings-growth
ASX:PRU Past Earnings Growth March 15th 2024

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). Doing so will help them establish if the stock's future looks promising or ominous. One good indicator of expected earnings growth is the P/E ratio which determines the price the market is willing to pay for a stock based on its earnings prospects. So, you may want to check if Perseus Mining is trading on a high P/E or a low P/E, relative to its industry.

Is Perseus Mining Using Its Retained Earnings Effectively?

Perseus Mining's three-year median payout ratio to shareholders is 10%, which is quite low. This implies that the company is retaining 90% of its profits. This suggests that the management is reinvesting most of the profits to grow the business as evidenced by the growth seen by the company.

While Perseus Mining has been growing its earnings, it only recently started to pay dividends which likely means that the company decided to impress new and existing shareholders with a dividend. Upon studying the latest analysts' consensus data, we found that the company's future payout ratio is expected to rise to 22% over the next three years. Accordingly, the expected increase in the payout ratio explains the expected decline in the company's ROE to 6.6%, over the same period.

Conclusion

Overall, we are quite pleased with Perseus Mining's performance. Particularly, we like that the company is reinvesting heavily into its business, and at a high rate of return. Unsurprisingly, this has led to an impressive earnings growth. With that said, on studying the latest analyst forecasts, we found that while the company has seen growth in its past earnings, analysts expect its future earnings to shrink. To know more about the company's future earnings growth forecasts take a look at this free report on analyst forecasts for the company to find out more.

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.