How Did Wheaton Precious Metals Corp’s (TSE:WPM) 1.18% ROE Fare Against The Industry?
Wheaton Precious Metals Corp (TSX:WPM) delivered a less impressive 1.18% ROE over the past year, compared to the 9.33% return generated by its industry. WPM’s results could indicate a relatively inefficient operation to its peers, and while this may be the case, it is important to understand what ROE is made up of and how it should be interpreted. Knowing these components could change your view on WPM’s performance. Today I will look at how components such as financial leverage can influence ROE which may impact the sustainability of WPM’s returns. See our latest analysis for Wheaton Precious Metals
What you must know about ROE
Return on Equity (ROE) weighs Wheaton Precious Metals’s profit against the level of its shareholders’ equity. An ROE of 1.18% implies CA$0.01 returned on every CA$1 invested. While a higher ROE is preferred in most cases, there are several other factors we should consider before drawing any conclusions.
Return on Equity = Net Profit ÷ Shareholders Equity
ROE is assessed against cost of equity, which is measured using the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) – but let’s not dive into the details of that today. For now, let’s just look at the cost of equity number for Wheaton Precious Metals, which is 17.64%. Given a discrepancy of -16.46% between return and cost, this indicated that Wheaton Precious Metals may be paying more for its capital than what it’s generating in return. ROE can be broken down into three different ratios: net profit margin, asset turnover, and financial leverage. This is called the Dupont Formula:
Dupont Formula
ROE = profit margin × asset turnover × financial leverage
ROE = (annual net profit ÷ sales) × (sales ÷ assets) × (assets ÷ shareholders’ equity)
ROE = annual net profit ÷ shareholders’ equity
Basically, profit margin measures how much of revenue trickles down into earnings which illustrates how efficient the business is with its cost management. Asset turnover shows how much revenue Wheaton Precious Metals can generate with its current asset base. Finally, financial leverage will be our main focus today. It shows how much of assets are funded by equity and can show how sustainable the company’s capital structure is. Since ROE can be artificially increased through excessive borrowing, we should check Wheaton Precious Metals’s historic debt-to-equity ratio. Currently the debt-to-equity ratio stands at a low 15.72%, which means Wheaton Precious Metals still has headroom to take on more leverage in order to increase profits.
Next Steps:
While ROE is a relatively simple calculation, it can be broken down into different ratios, each telling a different story about the strengths and weaknesses of a company. Wheaton Precious Metals exhibits a weak ROE against its peers, as well as insufficient levels to cover its own cost of equity this year. Although, its appropriate level of leverage means investors can be more confident in the sustainability of Wheaton Precious Metals’s return with a possible increase should the company decide to increase its debt levels. ROE is a helpful signal, but it is definitely not sufficient on its own to make an investment decision.
For Wheaton Precious Metals, I’ve compiled three key aspects you should look at:
Financial Health: Does it have a healthy balance sheet? Take a look at our free balance sheet analysis with six simple checks on key factors like leverage and risk.
Valuation: What is Wheaton Precious Metals worth today? Is the stock undervalued, even when its growth outlook is factored into its intrinsic value? The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether Wheaton Precious Metals is currently mispriced by the market.
Other High-Growth Alternatives : Are there other high-growth stocks you could be holding instead of Wheaton Precious Metals? Explore our interactive list of stocks with large growth potential to get an idea of what else is out there you may be missing!
To help readers see pass the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price sensitive company announcements.
The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned.
