Should Weakness in Bonduelle SCA's (EPA:BON) Stock Be Seen As A Sign That Market Will Correct The Share Price Given Decent Financials?

It is hard to get excited after looking at Bonduelle's (EPA:BON) recent performance, when its stock has declined 4.3% over the past month. However, the company's fundamentals look pretty decent, and long-term financials are usually aligned with future market price movements. Specifically, we decided to study Bonduelle's ROE in this article.

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 other words, it is a profitability ratio which measures the rate of return on the capital provided by the company's shareholders.

Check out our latest analysis for Bonduelle

How Is ROE Calculated?

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 Bonduelle is:

7.7% = €55m ÷ €710m (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2020).

The 'return' refers to a company's earnings over the last year. So, this means that for every €1 of its shareholder's investments, the company generates a profit of €0.08.

What Is The Relationship Between ROE And Earnings Growth?

So far, we've learned that ROE is a measure of a company's profitability. 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. 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 Bonduelle's Earnings Growth And 7.7% ROE

On the face of it, Bonduelle's ROE is not much to talk about. However, given that the company's ROE is similar to the average industry ROE of 7.9%, we may spare it some thought. Having said that, Bonduelle's net income growth over the past five years is more or less flat. Bear in mind, the company's ROE is not very high. So that could also be one of the reasons behind the company's flat growth in earnings.

Next, on comparing with the industry net income growth, we found that Bonduelle's growth figure is a bit better than the industry which has been shrinking at a rate of 1.2% in the same period.

The basis for attaching value to a company is, to a great extent, tied to its earnings growth. The investor should try to establish if the expected growth or decline in earnings, whichever the case may be, is priced in. By doing so, they will have an idea if the stock is headed into clear blue waters or if swampy waters await. Is Bonduelle fairly valued compared to other companies? These 3 valuation measures might help you decide.

Is Bonduelle Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?

Bonduelle's low three-year median payout ratio of 23%, (meaning the company retains77% of profits) should mean that the company is retaining most of its earnings and consequently, should see higher growth than it has reported.

Additionally, Bonduelle has paid dividends over a period of at least ten years, which means that the company's management is determined to pay dividends even if it means little to no earnings growth. Our latest analyst data shows that the future payout ratio of the company over the next three years is expected to be approximately 21%. As a result, Bonduelle's ROE is not expected to change by much either, which we inferred from the analyst estimate of 9.2% for future ROE.

Conclusion

In total, it does look like Bonduelle has some positive aspects to its business. Despite its low rate of return, the fact that the company reinvests a very high portion of its profits into its business, no doubt contributed to its high earnings growth. With that said, the latest industry analyst forecasts reveal that the company's earnings are expected to accelerate. 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. 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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