Declining Stock and Solid Fundamentals: Is The Market Wrong About Hubbell Incorporated (NYSE:HUBB)?
Hubbell (NYSE:HUBB) has had a rough month with its share price down 12%. However, stock prices are usually driven by a company’s financial performance over the long term, which in this case looks quite promising. Particularly, we will be paying attention to Hubbell's ROE today.
Return on Equity or ROE is a test of how effectively a company is growing its value and managing investors’ money. In short, ROE shows the profit each dollar generates with respect to its shareholder investments.
Check out our latest analysis for Hubbell
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
So, based on the above formula, the ROE for Hubbell is:
17% = US$367m ÷ US$2.1b (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2021).
The 'return' refers to a company's earnings over the last year. So, this means that for every $1 of its shareholder's investments, the company generates a profit of $0.17.
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. 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.
Hubbell's Earnings Growth And 17% ROE
At first glance, Hubbell seems to have a decent ROE. On comparing with the average industry ROE of 13% the company's ROE looks pretty remarkable. Probably as a result of this, Hubbell was able to see a decent growth of 7.9% over the last five years.
We then performed a comparison between Hubbell's net income growth with the industry, which revealed that the company's growth is similar to the average industry growth of 7.1% 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). By doing so, they will have an idea if the stock is headed into clear blue waters or if swampy waters await. What is HUBB worth today? The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether HUBB is currently mispriced by the market.
Is Hubbell Making Efficient Use Of Its Profits?
Hubbell has a healthy combination of a moderate three-year median payout ratio of 49% (or a retention ratio of 51%) and a respectable amount of growth in earnings as we saw above, meaning that the company has been making efficient use of its profits.
Additionally, Hubbell has paid dividends over a period of at least ten years which means that the company is pretty serious about sharing its profits with shareholders. Based on the latest analysts' estimates, we found that the company's future payout ratio over the next three years is expected to hold steady at 41%. However, Hubbell's ROE is predicted to rise to 22% despite there being no anticipated change in its payout ratio.
Conclusion
On the whole, we feel that Hubbell's performance has been quite good. 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. Having said that, looking at the current analyst estimates, we found that the company's earnings are expected to gain momentum. To know more about the latest analysts predictions for the company, check out this visualization of analyst forecasts for the company.
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.
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