Are Robust Financials Driving The Recent Rally In dotdigital Group Plc's (LON:DOTD) Stock?

Most readers would already be aware that dotdigital Group's (LON:DOTD) stock increased significantly by 26% 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. Specifically, we decided to study dotdigital Group's ROE in this article.

Return on Equity or ROE is a test of how effectively a company is growing its value and managing investors’ money. In simpler terms, it measures the profitability of a company in relation to shareholder's equity.

Check out our latest analysis for dotdigital Group

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 dotdigital Group is:

21% = UK£11m ÷ UK£51m (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2020).

The 'return' is the income the business earned over the last year. That means that for every £1 worth of shareholders' equity, the company generated £0.21 in profit.

What Has ROE Got To Do With 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.

dotdigital Group's Earnings Growth And 21% ROE

At first glance, dotdigital Group seems to have a decent ROE. Further, the company's ROE compares quite favorably to the industry average of 8.3%. Probably as a result of this, dotdigital Group was able to see a decent growth of 19% over the last five years.

Next, on comparing with the industry net income growth, we found that dotdigital Group's growth is quite high when compared to the industry average growth of 11% in the same period, which is great to see.

The basis for attaching value to a company is, to a great extent, tied to its earnings growth. It’s important for an investor to know whether the market has priced in the company's expected earnings growth (or decline). Doing so will help them establish if the stock's future looks promising or ominous. One good indicator of expected earnings growth is the P/E ratio which determines the price the market is willing to pay for a stock based on its earnings prospects. So, you may want to check if dotdigital Group is trading on a high P/E or a low P/E, relative to its industry.

Is dotdigital Group Making Efficient Use Of Its Profits?

dotdigital Group's three-year median payout ratio to shareholders is 22% (implying that it retains 78% of its income), which is on the lower side, so it seems like the management is reinvesting profits heavily to grow its business.

Additionally, dotdigital Group has paid dividends over a period of seven years which means that the company is pretty serious about sharing its profits with shareholders. 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 23%. As a result, dotdigital Group's ROE is not expected to change by much either, which we inferred from the analyst estimate of 17% for future ROE.

Conclusion

On the whole, we feel that dotdigital Group's performance has been quite good. Particularly, we like that the company is reinvesting heavily into its business, and at a high rate of return. Unsurprisingly, this has led to an impressive earnings growth. Having said that, the company's earnings growth is expected to slow down, as forecasted in the current analyst estimates. 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. 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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