Yahoo Finance LyondellBasell Industries N.V. (NYSE:LYB) On An Uptrend: Could Fundamentals Be Driving The Stock?
LyondellBasell Industries' (NYSE:LYB) stock is up by 6.9% over the past three months. 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. Particularly, we will be paying attention to LyondellBasell Industries' 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. In short, ROE shows the profit each dollar generates with respect to its shareholder investments.
View our latest analysis for LyondellBasell Industries
How Is ROE Calculated?
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 LyondellBasell Industries is:
16% = US$2.1b ÷ US$13b (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2023).
The 'return' is the amount earned after tax over the last twelve months. That means that for every $1 worth of shareholders' equity, the company generated $0.16 in profit.
Why Is ROE Important For Earnings Growth?
So far, we've learned that ROE is a measure of a company's profitability. 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 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.
A Side By Side comparison of LyondellBasell Industries' Earnings Growth And 16% ROE
At first glance, LyondellBasell Industries seems to have a decent ROE. Further, the company's ROE compares quite favorably to the industry average of 13%. Given the circumstances, we can't help but wonder why LyondellBasell Industries saw little to no growth in the past five years. Therefore, there could be some other aspects that could potentially be preventing the company from growing. Such as, the company pays out a huge portion of its earnings as dividends, or is faced with competitive pressures.
As a next step, we compared LyondellBasell Industries' net income growth with the industry and discovered that the industry saw an average growth of 14% in the same period.
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. Doing so will help them establish if the stock's future looks promising or ominous. What is LYB worth today? The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether LYB is currently mispriced by the market.
Is LyondellBasell Industries Using Its Retained Earnings Effectively?
Despite having a moderate three-year median payout ratio of 40% (meaning the company retains60% of profits) in the last three-year period, LyondellBasell Industries' earnings growth was more or les flat. Therefore, there might be some other reasons to explain the lack in that respect. For example, the business could be in decline.
Moreover, LyondellBasell Industries has been paying dividends for at least ten years or more suggesting that management must have perceived that the shareholders prefer dividends over earnings growth. Our latest analyst data shows that the future payout ratio of the company is expected to rise to 54% over the next three years. However, LyondellBasell Industries' future ROE is expected to rise to 22% despite the expected increase in the company's payout ratio. We infer that there could be other factors that could be driving the anticipated growth in the company's ROE.
Summary
Overall, we feel that LyondellBasell Industries certainly does have some positive factors to consider. Although, we are disappointed to see a lack of growth in earnings even in spite of a high ROE and and a high reinvestment rate. We believe that there might be some outside factors that could be having a negative impact on the business. Having said that, looking at current analyst estimates, we found that the company's earnings growth rate is expected to see a huge improvement. 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.
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.
