Is Minerals Technologies Inc.'s (NYSE:MTX) Recent Stock Performance Influenced By Its Fundamentals In Any Way?
Minerals Technologies' (NYSE:MTX) stock is up by a considerable 10% over the past three months. 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 Minerals Technologies' 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.
Check out our latest analysis for Minerals Technologies
How To Calculate Return On Equity?
Return on equity 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 Minerals Technologies is:
8.6% = US$123m ÷ US$1.4b (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2020).
The 'return' is the yearly profit. One way to conceptualize this is that for each $1 of shareholders' capital it has, the company made $0.09 in profit.
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. We now need to evaluate how much profit the company reinvests or "retains" for future growth which then gives us an idea about the growth potential of the company. 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.
Minerals Technologies' Earnings Growth And 8.6% ROE
When you first look at it, Minerals Technologies' ROE doesn't look that attractive. However, its ROE is similar to the industry average of 10%, so we won't completely dismiss the company. On the other hand, Minerals Technologies reported a moderate 6.1% net income growth over the past five years. Given the slightly low ROE, it is likely that there could be some other aspects that are driving this growth. For instance, the company has a low payout ratio or is being managed efficiently.
Next, on comparing with the industry net income growth, we found that Minerals Technologies' reported growth was lower than the industry growth of 8.6% in the same period, which is not something we like to see.
Earnings growth is a huge factor in stock valuation. The investor should try to establish if the expected growth or decline in earnings, whichever the case may be, is priced in. By doing so, they will have an idea if the stock is headed into clear blue waters or if swampy waters await. What is MTX worth today? The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether MTX is currently mispriced by the market.
Is Minerals Technologies Using Its Retained Earnings Effectively?
In Minerals Technologies' case, its respectable earnings growth can probably be explained by its low three-year median payout ratio of 4.5% (or a retention ratio of 96%), which suggests that the company is investing most of its profits to grow its business.
Besides, Minerals Technologies has been paying dividends for at least ten years or more. This shows that the company is committed to sharing profits with its shareholders. Our latest analyst data shows that the future payout ratio of the company over the next three years is expected to be approximately 4.2%. As a result, Minerals Technologies' ROE is not expected to change by much either, which we inferred from the analyst estimate of 10% for future ROE.
Summary
In total, it does look like Minerals Technologies has some positive aspects to its business. Specifically, its fairly high earnings growth number, which no doubt was backed by the company's high earnings retention. Still, the low ROE means that all that reinvestment is not reaping a lot of benefit to the investors. With that said, the latest industry analyst forecasts reveal that the company's earnings are expected to accelerate. 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.
This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. 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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