Is Stantec Inc.'s (TSE:STN) Recent Stock Performance Tethered To Its Strong Fundamentals?

Most readers would already be aware that Stantec's (TSE:STN) stock increased significantly by 16% over the past three months. Since the market usually pay for a company’s long-term fundamentals, we decided to study the company’s key performance indicators to see if they could be influencing the market. Particularly, we will be paying attention to Stantec's ROE today.

Return on equity or ROE is an important factor to be considered by a shareholder because it tells them how effectively their capital is being reinvested. In short, ROE shows the profit each dollar generates with respect to its shareholder investments.

View our latest analysis for Stantec

How To Calculate Return On Equity?

The formula for return on equity is:

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

So, based on the above formula, the ROE for Stantec is:

13% = CA$349m ÷ CA$2.7b (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2024).

The 'return' is the yearly profit. So, this means that for every CA$1 of its shareholder's investments, the company generates a profit of CA$0.13.

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 all else is equal, companies that have both a higher return on equity and higher profit retention are usually the ones that have a higher growth rate when compared to companies that don't have the same features.

A Side By Side comparison of Stantec's Earnings Growth And 13% ROE

To start with, Stantec's ROE looks acceptable. And on comparing with the industry, we found that the the average industry ROE is similar at 13%. This probably goes some way in explaining Stantec's moderate 16% growth over the past five years amongst other factors.

As a next step, we compared Stantec'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 16% in the same period.

Earnings growth is an important metric to consider when valuing a stock. The investor should try to establish if the expected growth or decline in earnings, whichever the case may be, is priced in. This then helps them determine if the stock is placed for a bright or bleak future. What is STN worth today? The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether STN is currently mispriced by the market.

Is Stantec Making Efficient Use Of Its Profits?

Stantec has a healthy combination of a moderate three-year median payout ratio of 30% (or a retention ratio of 70%) and a respectable amount of growth in earnings as we saw above, meaning that the company has been making efficient use of its profits.

Moreover, Stantec 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. Upon studying the latest analysts' consensus data, we found that the company's future payout ratio is expected to drop to 17% over the next three years. Accordingly, the expected drop in the payout ratio explains the expected increase in the company's ROE to 19%, over the same period.

Conclusion

Overall, we are quite pleased with Stantec's performance. In particular, it's great to see that the company is investing heavily into its business and along with a high rate of return, that has resulted in a sizeable growth in its earnings. That being so, the latest analyst forecasts show that the company will continue to see an expansion in its earnings. 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.

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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.