Yahoo Finance Will Weakness in DRDGOLD Limited's (NYSE:DRD) Stock Prove Temporary Given Strong Fundamentals?
DRDGOLD (NYSE:DRD) has had a rough three months with its share price down 34%. But if you pay close attention, you might gather that its strong financials could mean that the stock could potentially see an increase in value in the long-term, given how markets usually reward companies with good financial health. Specifically, we decided to study DRDGOLD's ROE in this article.
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. Simply put, it is used to assess the profitability of a company in relation to its equity capital.
See our latest analysis for DRDGOLD
How Is ROE Calculated?
The formula for ROE is:
Return on Equity = Net Profit (from continuing operations) ÷ Shareholders' Equity
So, based on the above formula, the ROE for DRDGOLD is:
20% = R986m ÷ R5.0b (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2021).
The 'return' is the amount earned after tax over the last twelve months. Another way to think of that is that for every $1 worth of equity, the company was able to earn $0.20 in profit.
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. 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. Assuming everything else remains unchanged, the higher the ROE and profit retention, the higher the growth rate of a company compared to companies that don't necessarily bear these characteristics.
DRDGOLD's Earnings Growth And 20% ROE
To begin with, DRDGOLD seems to have a respectable ROE. And on comparing with the industry, we found that the the average industry ROE is similar at 22%. Consequently, this likely laid the ground for the impressive net income growth of 66% seen over the past five years by DRDGOLD. However, there could also be other drivers behind this growth. Such as - high earnings retention or an efficient management in place.
As a next step, we compared DRDGOLD's net income growth with the industry, and pleasingly, we found that the growth seen by the company is higher than the average industry growth of 23%.
The basis for attaching value to a company is, to a great extent, tied to its earnings growth. 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. Is DRDGOLD fairly valued compared to other companies? These 3 valuation measures might help you decide.
Is DRDGOLD Making Efficient Use Of Its Profits?
DRDGOLD's significant three-year median payout ratio of 68% (where it is retaining only 32% of its income) suggests that the company has been able to achieve a high growth in earnings despite returning most of its income to shareholders.
Besides, DRDGOLD has been paying dividends for at least ten years or more. This shows that the company is committed to sharing profits with its shareholders.
Summary
In total, we are pretty happy with DRDGOLD's performance. Especially the high ROE, Which has contributed to the impressive growth seen in earnings. Despite the company reinvesting only a small portion of its profits, it still has managed to grow its earnings so that is appreciable. 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. 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.
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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.
