Is Innospec Inc.'s (NASDAQ:IOSP) Recent Stock Performance Influenced By Its Financials In Any Way?

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Most readers would already know that Innospec's (NASDAQ:IOSP) stock increased by 2.4% over the past month. As most would know, long-term fundamentals have a strong correlation with market price movements, so we decided to look at the company's key financial indicators today to determine if they have any role to play in the recent price movement. Specifically, we decided to study Innospec's ROE in this article.

Return on equity or ROE is a key measure used to assess how efficiently a company's management is utilizing the company's capital. Simply put, it is used to assess the profitability of a company in relation to its equity capital.

View our latest analysis for Innospec

How Do You Calculate Return On Equity?

The formula for ROE is:

Return on Equity = Net Profit (from continuing operations) ÷ Shareholders' Equity

So, based on the above formula, the ROE for Innospec is:

12% = US$130m ÷ US$1.1b (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 $0.12.

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 all else is equal, companies that have both a higher return on equity and higher profit retention are usually the ones that have a higher growth rate when compared to companies that don't have the same features.

Innospec's Earnings Growth And 12% ROE

To start with, Innospec's ROE looks acceptable. Be that as it may, the company's ROE is still quite lower than the industry average of 16%. Although, we can see that Innospec saw a modest net income growth of 11% over the past five years. So, there might be other aspects that are positively influencing earnings growth. For example, it is possible that the company's management has made some good strategic decisions, or that the company has a low payout ratio. Bear in mind, the company does have a respectable level of ROE. It is just that the industry ROE is higher. So this also provides some context to the earnings growth seen by the company.

We then compared Innospec's net income growth with the industry and found that the company's growth figure is lower than the average industry growth rate of 15% in the same 5-year period, which is a bit concerning.

past-earnings-growth
past-earnings-growth

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. What is IOSP worth today? The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether IOSP is currently mispriced by the market.

Is Innospec Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?

With a three-year median payout ratio of 29% (implying that the company retains 71% of its profits), it seems that Innospec is reinvesting efficiently in a way that it sees respectable amount growth in its earnings and pays a dividend that's well covered.

Moreover, Innospec 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.

Summary

Overall, we feel that Innospec certainly does have some positive factors to consider. Specifically, we like that the company is reinvesting a huge chunk of its profits at a respectable rate of return. This of course has caused the company to see a good amount of growth in its earnings. With that said, the latest industry analyst forecasts reveal that the company's earnings are expected to accelerate. To know more about the latest analysts predictions for the company, check out this visualization of analyst forecasts 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.

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