Yahoo Finance Could The Market Be Wrong About Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) Given Its Attractive Financial Prospects?
Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) has had a rough month with its share price down 19%. However, stock prices are usually driven by a company’s financial performance over the long term, which in this case looks quite promising. Specifically, we decided to study Freeport-McMoRan'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. In other words, it is a profitability ratio which measures the rate of return on the capital provided by the company's shareholders.
View our latest analysis for Freeport-McMoRan
How Do You 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 Freeport-McMoRan is:
14% = US$3.6b ÷ US$26b (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2023).
The 'return' is the income the business earned over the last year. That means that for every $1 worth of shareholders' equity, the company generated $0.14 in profit.
What Is The Relationship Between ROE And Earnings Growth?
We have already established that ROE serves as an efficient profit-generating gauge for a company's future earnings. 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.
Freeport-McMoRan's Earnings Growth And 14% ROE
To start with, Freeport-McMoRan's ROE looks acceptable. Even when compared to the industry average of 15% the company's ROE looks quite decent. This probably goes some way in explaining Freeport-McMoRan's significant 21% net income growth over the past five years amongst other factors. We reckon that there could also be other factors at play here. For instance, the company has a low payout ratio or is being managed efficiently.
As a next step, we compared Freeport-McMoRan'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 a huge factor in stock valuation. 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. Has the market priced in the future outlook for FCX? You can find out in our latest intrinsic value infographic research report.
Is Freeport-McMoRan Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?
Freeport-McMoRan's three-year median payout ratio to shareholders is 11%, which is quite low. This implies that the company is retaining 89% of its profits. So it seems like the management is reinvesting profits heavily to grow its business and this reflects in its earnings growth number.
Moreover, Freeport-McMoRan 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. Looking at the current analyst consensus data, we can see that the company's future payout ratio is expected to rise to 25% over the next three years. Despite the higher expected payout ratio, the company's ROE is not expected to change by much.
Summary
Overall, we are quite pleased with Freeport-McMoRan's performance. Specifically, we like that the company is reinvesting a huge chunk of its profits at a high 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 growth is expected to slow down. 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.
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