Northwest Pipe Company's (NASDAQ:NWPX) Financials Are Too Obscure To Link With Current Share Price Momentum: What's In Store For the Stock?
Northwest Pipe (NASDAQ:NWPX) has had a great run on the share market with its stock up by a significant 19% over the last month. However, we wonder if the company's inconsistent financials would have any adverse impact on the current share price momentum. Particularly, we will be paying attention to Northwest Pipe's ROE today.
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.
Check out our latest analysis for Northwest Pipe
How To Calculate Return On Equity?
The formula for return on equity is:
Return on Equity = Net Profit (from continuing operations) ÷ Shareholders' Equity
So, based on the above formula, the ROE for Northwest Pipe is:
6.2% = US$21m ÷ US$340m (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2023).
The 'return' is the yearly profit. One way to conceptualize this is that for each $1 of shareholders' capital it has, the company made $0.06 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. Generally speaking, other things being equal, firms with a high return on equity and profit retention, have a higher growth rate than firms that don’t share these attributes.
Northwest Pipe's Earnings Growth And 6.2% ROE
At first glance, Northwest Pipe's ROE doesn't look very promising. Next, when compared to the average industry ROE of 12%, the company's ROE leaves us feeling even less enthusiastic. Therefore, Northwest Pipe's flat earnings over the past five years can possibly be explained by the low ROE amongst other factors.
As a next step, we compared Northwest Pipe's net income growth with the industry and discovered that the industry saw an average growth of 17% in the same period.
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 NWPX worth today? The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether NWPX is currently mispriced by the market.
Is Northwest Pipe Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?
Northwest Pipe doesn't pay any dividend, meaning that potentially all of its profits are being reinvested in the business. However, this doesn't explain why the company hasn't seen any growth. It looks like there might be some other reasons to explain the lack in that respect. For example, the business could be in decline.
Summary
In total, we're a bit ambivalent about Northwest Pipe's performance. Even though it appears to be retaining most of its profits, given the low ROE, investors may not be benefitting from all that reinvestment after all. The low earnings growth suggests our theory correct. That being so, the latest industry analyst forecasts show that the analysts are expecting to see a huge improvement in the company's earnings growth rate. 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.
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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.
