Most readers would already be aware that Admiral Group’s (LON:ADM) stock increased significantly by 17% over the past three months. Given that the market rewards strong financials in the long-term, we wonder if that is the case in this instance. Specifically, we decided to study Admiral Group’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. In short, ROE shows the profit each dollar generates with respect to its shareholder investments.
See our latest analysis for Admiral Group
How To Calculate Return On Equity?
ROE 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 Admiral Group is:
47% = UK£490m ÷ UK£1.1b (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2020).
The ‘return’ is the amount earned after tax over the last twelve months. One way to conceptualize this is that for each £1 of shareholders’ capital it has, the company made £0.47 in profit.
What Has ROE Got To Do With 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.
Admiral Group’s Earnings Growth And 47% ROE
To begin with, Admiral Group has a pretty high ROE which is interesting. Second, a comparison with the average ROE reported by the industry of 12% also doesn’t go unnoticed by us. This probably laid the groundwork for Admiral Group’s moderate 12% net income growth seen over the past five years.
As a next step, we compared Admiral Group’s net income growth with the industry and found that the company has a similar growth figure when compared with the industry average growth rate of 12% in the same period.
Earnings growth is an important metric to consider when valuing a stock. It’s important for an investor to know whether the market has priced in the company’s expected earnings growth (or decline). Doing so will help them establish if the stock’s future looks promising or ominous. Is ADM fairly valued? This infographic on the company’s intrinsic value has everything you need to know.
Is Admiral Group Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?
While Admiral Group has a three-year median payout ratio of 66% (which means it retains 34% of profits), the company has still seen a fair bit of earnings growth in the past, meaning that its high payout ratio hasn’t hampered its ability to grow.
Moreover, Admiral Group 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. Our latest analyst data shows that the future payout ratio of the company is expected to rise to 86% over the next three years. However, the company’s ROE is not expected to change by much despite the higher expected payout ratio.
Conclusion
Overall, we are quite pleased with Admiral Group’s performance. In particular, its high ROE is quite noteworthy and also the probable explanation behind its considerable earnings growth. Yet, the company is retaining a small portion of its profits. Which means that the company has been able to grow its earnings in spite of it, so that’s not too bad. With that said, on studying the latest analyst forecasts, we found that while the company has seen growth in its past earnings, analysts expect its future earnings to shrink. 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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