Hikma Pharmaceuticals PLC's (LON:HIK) Has Had A Decent Run On The Stock market: Are Fundamentals In The Driver's Seat?

Hikma Pharmaceuticals' (LON:HIK) stock up by 9.7% 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 Hikma Pharmaceuticals' ROE today.

Return on Equity or ROE is a test of how effectively a company is growing its value and managing investors’ money. Simply put, it is used to assess the profitability of a company in relation to its equity capital.

Check out our latest analysis for Hikma Pharmaceuticals

How Do You 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 Hikma Pharmaceuticals is:

13% = US$290m ÷ US$2.3b (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2024).

The 'return' is the income the business earned over the last year. So, this means that for every £1 of its shareholder's investments, the company generates a profit of £0.13.

Why Is ROE Important For Earnings Growth?

We have already established that ROE serves as an efficient profit-generating gauge for a company's future earnings. 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. 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.

Hikma Pharmaceuticals' Earnings Growth And 13% ROE

At first glance, Hikma Pharmaceuticals seems to have a decent ROE. Further, the company's ROE is similar to the industry average of 13%. For this reason, Hikma Pharmaceuticals' five year net income decline of 19% raises the question as to why the decent ROE didn't translate into growth. Based on this, we feel that there might be other reasons which haven't been discussed so far in this article that could be hampering the company's growth. For example, it could be that the company has a high payout ratio or the business has allocated capital poorly, for instance.

As a next step, we compared Hikma Pharmaceuticals' performance with the industry and found thatHikma Pharmaceuticals' performance is depressing even when compared with the industry, which has shrunk its earnings at a rate of 5.2% in the same period, which is a slower than the company.

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. By doing so, they will have an idea if the stock is headed into clear blue waters or if swampy waters await. What is HIK worth today? The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether HIK is currently mispriced by the market.

Is Hikma Pharmaceuticals Using Its Retained Earnings Effectively?

Hikma Pharmaceuticals has a high three-year median payout ratio of 61% (that is, it is retaining 39% of its profits). This suggests that the company is paying most of its profits as dividends to its shareholders. This goes some way in explaining why its earnings have been shrinking. With only very little left to reinvest into the business, growth in earnings is far from likely. Our risks dashboard should have the 2 risks we have identified for Hikma Pharmaceuticals.

In addition, Hikma Pharmaceuticals has been paying dividends over a period of at least ten years suggesting that keeping up dividend payments is way more important to the management even if it comes at the cost of business growth. Existing analyst estimates suggest that the company's future payout ratio is expected to drop to 32% 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.

Summary

In total, it does look like Hikma Pharmaceuticals has some positive aspects to its business. Yet, the low earnings growth is a bit concerning, especially given that the company has a high rate of return. Investors could have benefitted from the high ROE, had the company been reinvesting more of its earnings. As discussed earlier, the company is retaining a small portion of its profits. 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.

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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.