Do Its Financials Have Any Role To Play In Driving Southern Copper Corporation's (NYSE:SCCO) Stock Up Recently?
Southern Copper (NYSE:SCCO) has had a great run on the share market with its stock up by a significant 8.1% over the last month. Given that stock prices are usually aligned with a company's financial performance in the long-term, we decided to study its financial indicators more closely to see if they had a hand to play in the recent price move. Specifically, we decided to study Southern Copper'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 Southern Copper
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 Southern Copper is:
33% = US$2.7b ÷ US$8.2b (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2023).
The 'return' is the yearly profit. So, this means that for every $1 of its shareholder's investments, the company generates a profit of $0.33.
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. 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.
A Side By Side comparison of Southern Copper's Earnings Growth And 33% ROE
First thing first, we like that Southern Copper has an impressive ROE. Second, a comparison with the average ROE reported by the industry of 13% also doesn't go unnoticed by us. Under the circumstances, Southern Copper's considerable five year net income growth of 24% was to be expected.
As a next step, we compared Southern Copper's net income growth with the industry and were disappointed to see that the company's growth is lower than the industry average growth of 31% 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. This then helps them determine if the stock is placed for a bright or bleak future. If you're wondering about Southern Copper's's valuation, check out this gauge of its price-to-earnings ratio, as compared to its industry.
Is Southern Copper Using Its Retained Earnings Effectively?
Southern Copper's significant three-year median payout ratio of 84% (where it is retaining only 16% 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.
Additionally, Southern Copper 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. Upon studying the latest analysts' consensus data, we found that the company is expected to keep paying out approximately 80% of its profits over the next three years. Accordingly, forecasts suggest that Southern Copper's future ROE will be 34% which is again, similar to the current ROE.
Summary
In total, it does look like Southern Copper has some positive aspects to its business. Its earnings growth is decent, and the high ROE does contribute to that growth. However, investors could have benefitted even more from the high ROE, had the company been reinvesting more of its earnings. With that said, the latest industry analyst forecasts reveal that the company's earnings growth is expected to slow down. 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.
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.
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