Yahoo Finance Are Persimmon Plc's (LON:PSN) Fundamentals Good Enough to Warrant Buying Given The Stock's Recent Weakness?
Persimmon (LON:PSN) has had a rough three months with its share price down 15%. But if you pay close attention, you might find that its key financial indicators look quite decent, which could mean that the stock could potentially rise in the long-term given how markets usually reward more resilient long-term fundamentals. In this article, we decided to focus on Persimmon's ROE.
ROE or return on equity is a useful tool to assess how effectively a company can generate returns on the investment it received from its shareholders. In simpler terms, it measures the profitability of a company in relation to shareholder's equity.
See our latest analysis for Persimmon
How Is ROE Calculated?
The formula for return on equity is:
Return on Equity = Net Profit (from continuing operations) ÷ Shareholders' Equity
So, based on the above formula, the ROE for Persimmon is:
22% = UK£787m ÷ UK£3.6b (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2021).
The 'return' is the yearly profit. One way to conceptualize this is that for each £1 of shareholders' capital it has, the company made £0.22 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. 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. 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.
Persimmon's Earnings Growth And 22% ROE
First thing first, we like that Persimmon has an impressive ROE. Secondly, even when compared to the industry average of 11% the company's ROE is quite impressive. Given the circumstances, we can't help but wonder why Persimmon saw little to no growth in the past five years. So, there could be some other aspects that could potentially be preventing the company from growing. For example, it could be that the company has a high payout ratio or the business has allocated capital poorly, for instance.
Next, on comparing with the industry net income growth, we found that the growth figure reported by Persimmon compares quite favourably to the industry average, which shows a decline of 7.8% in the same period.
Earnings growth is an important metric to consider when valuing a stock. What investors need to determine next is if the expected earnings growth, or the lack of it, is already built into the share price. 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 Persimmon is trading on a high P/E or a low P/E, relative to its industry.
Is Persimmon Making Efficient Use Of Its Profits?
The high three-year median payout ratio of 95% (meaning, the company retains only 5.4% of profits) for Persimmon suggests that the company's earnings growth was miniscule as a result of paying out a majority of its earnings.
Moreover, Persimmon 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. Upon studying the latest analysts' consensus data, we found that the company is expected to keep paying out approximately 96% of its profits over the next three years. As a result, Persimmon's ROE is not expected to change by much either, which we inferred from the analyst estimate of 21% for future ROE.
Conclusion
Overall, we feel that Persimmon certainly does have some positive factors to consider. Especially the growth in earnings which was backed by an impressive ROE. Still, the high ROE could have been even more beneficial to investors had the company been reinvesting more of its profits. As highlighted earlier, the current reinvestment rate appears to be negligible. That being so, the latest analyst forecasts show that the company will continue to see an expansion in its earnings. 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.
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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.
