Yahoo Finance MDU Resources Group, Inc. (NYSE:MDU) Stock Has Shown Weakness Lately But Financials Look Strong: Should Prospective Shareholders Make The Leap?
MDU Resources Group (NYSE:MDU) has had a rough three months with its share price down 32%. However, stock prices are usually driven by a company’s financial performance over the long term, which in this case looks quite promising. In this article, we decided to focus on MDU Resources Group's ROE.
Return on equity or ROE is a key measure used to assess how efficiently a company's management is utilizing the company's capital. Put another way, it reveals the company's success at turning shareholder investments into profits.
See our latest analysis for MDU Resources Group
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 MDU Resources Group is:
12% = US$335m ÷ US$2.8b (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2019).
The 'return' is the profit over the last twelve months. So, this means that for every $1 of its shareholder's investments, the company generates a profit of $0.12.
Why Is ROE Important For Earnings Growth?
Thus far, we have learnt 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.
MDU Resources Group's Earnings Growth And 12% ROE
At first glance, MDU Resources Group seems to have a decent ROE. On comparing with the average industry ROE of 9.5% the company's ROE looks pretty remarkable. This probably laid the ground for MDU Resources Group's moderate 13% net income growth seen over the past five years.
As a next step, we compared MDU Resources Group's net income growth with the industry, and pleasingly, we found that the growth seen by the company is higher than the average industry growth of 8.3%.
Earnings growth is an important metric to consider when valuing a stock. 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 MDU worth today? The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether MDU is currently mispriced by the market.
Is MDU Resources Group Making Efficient Use Of Its Profits?
The high three-year median payout ratio of 63% (or a retention ratio of 37%) for MDU Resources Group suggests that the company's growth wasn't really hampered despite it returning most of its income to its shareholders.
Additionally, MDU Resources Group has paid dividends over a period of at least ten years which means that the company is pretty serious about sharing its profits with shareholders. Upon studying the latest analysts' consensus data, we found that the company's future payout ratio is expected to drop to 43% over the next three years.
Conclusion
On the whole, we feel that MDU Resources Group's performance has been quite good. We are particularly impressed by the considerable earnings growth posted by the company, which was likely backed by its high ROE. While the company is paying out most of its earnings as dividends, it has been able to grow its earnings in spite of it, so that's probably a good sign. So far, we've only made a quick discussion around the company's earnings growth. You can do your own research on MDU Resources Group and see how it has performed in the past by looking at this FREE detailed graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flows.
If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. 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. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.
We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
