Moneysupermarket.com Group PLC's (LON:MONY) Stock Has Fared Decently: Is the Market Following Strong Financials?

Moneysupermarket.com Group's (LON:MONY) stock up by 9.7% over the past three months. Since the market usually pay for a company’s long-term financial health, we decided to study the company’s fundamentals to see if they could be influencing the market. In this article, we decided to focus on Moneysupermarket.com Group's ROE.

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. Put another way, it reveals the company's success at turning shareholder investments into profits.

View our latest analysis for Moneysupermarket.com Group

How To Calculate Return On Equity?

The formula for ROE is:

Return on Equity = Net Profit (from continuing operations) ÷ Shareholders' Equity

So, based on the above formula, the ROE for Moneysupermarket.com Group is:

48% = UK£95m ÷ UK£199m (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2019).

The 'return' is the yearly profit. One way to conceptualize this is that for each £1 of shareholders' capital it has, the company made £0.48 in profit.

What Has ROE Got To Do With Earnings Growth?

So far, we've learnt that ROE is a measure of a company's profitability. Depending on how much of these profits the company reinvests or "retains", and how effectively it does so, we are then able to assess a company’s earnings growth potential. 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.

A Side By Side comparison of Moneysupermarket.com Group's Earnings Growth And 48% ROE

To begin with, Moneysupermarket.com Group has a pretty high ROE which is interesting. Second, a comparison with the average ROE reported by the industry of 22% also doesn't go unnoticed by us. This probably laid the groundwork for Moneysupermarket.com Group's moderate 10% net income growth seen over the past five years.

As a next step, we compared Moneysupermarket.com 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 13% in the same period.

LSE:MONY Past Earnings Growth July 6th 2020

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). By doing so, they will have an idea if the stock is headed into clear blue waters or if swampy waters await. Is Moneysupermarket.com Group fairly valued compared to other companies? These 3 valuation measures might help you decide.

Is Moneysupermarket.com Group Using Its Retained Earnings Effectively?

Moneysupermarket.com Group has a significant three-year median payout ratio of 70%, meaning that it is left with only 30% to reinvest into its business. This implies that the company has been able to achieve decent earnings growth despite returning most of its profits to shareholders.

Moreover, Moneysupermarket.com 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. Based on the latest analysts' estimates, we found that the company's future payout ratio over the next three years is expected to hold steady at 73%. Therefore, the company's future ROE is also not expected to change by much with analysts predicting an ROE of 39%.

Summary

Overall, we are quite pleased with Moneysupermarket.com 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. That being so, a study of the latest analyst forecasts show that the company is expected to see a slowdown in its future earnings growth. To know more about the company's future earnings growth forecasts take a look at this free report on analyst forecasts for the company to find out more.

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.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com.