Yahoo Finance Is Primary Health Properties PLC's (LON:PHP) Stock's Recent Performance A Reflection Of Its Financial Health?
Most readers would already know that Primary Health Properties' (LON:PHP) stock increased by 8.3% over the past three months. Since the market usually pay for a company’s long-term financial health, we decided to study the company’s fundamentals to see if they could be influencing the market. Particularly, we will be paying attention to Primary Health Properties' ROE today.
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. Put another way, it reveals the company's success at turning shareholder investments into profits.
View our latest analysis for Primary Health Properties
How Do You Calculate Return On Equity?
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 Primary Health Properties is:
9.3% = UK£140m ÷ UK£1.5b (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2021).
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 £0.09 in profit.
What Is The Relationship Between ROE And Earnings Growth?
Thus far, we have learned that ROE measures how efficiently a company is generating its profits. Based on how much of its profits the company chooses to reinvest or "retain", we are then able to evaluate a company's future ability to generate profits. 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.
Primary Health Properties' Earnings Growth And 9.3% ROE
At first glance, Primary Health Properties seems to have a decent ROE. Even when compared to the industry average of 12% the company's ROE looks quite decent. This probably goes some way in explaining Primary Health Properties' moderate 14% growth over the past five years amongst other factors.
We then compared Primary Health Properties' 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 2.7% in the same period.
Earnings growth is an important metric to consider when valuing a stock. It’s important for an investor to know whether the market has priced in the company's expected earnings growth (or decline). This then helps them determine if the stock is placed for a bright or bleak future. What is PHP worth today? The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether PHP is currently mispriced by the market.
Is Primary Health Properties Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?
Primary Health Properties seems to be paying out most of its income as dividends judging by its three-year median payout ratio of 58%, meaning the company retains only 42% of its income. However, this is typical for REITs as they are often required by law to distribute most of their earnings. In spite of this, the company was able to grow its earnings by a fair bit, as we saw above.
Moreover, Primary Health Properties is determined to keep sharing its profits with shareholders which we infer from its long history of paying a dividend for at least ten years. Upon studying the latest analysts' consensus data, we found that the company's future payout ratio is expected to rise to 99% over the next three years. Accordingly, the expected increase in the payout ratio explains the expected decline in the company's ROE to 4.9%, over the same period.
Conclusion
In total, we are pretty happy with Primary Health Properties' performance. In particular, its high ROE is quite noteworthy and also the probable explanation behind its considerable earnings growth. Yet, the company is retaining a small portion of its profits. Which means that the company has been able to grow its earnings in spite of it, so that's not too bad. With that said, the latest industry analyst forecasts reveal that the company's earnings growth is expected to slow down. 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.
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.
