Is Weakness In Valmont Industries, Inc. (NYSE:VMI) Stock A Sign That The Market Could be Wrong Given Its Strong Financial Prospects?

With its stock down 5.5% over the past three months, it is easy to disregard Valmont Industries (NYSE:VMI). However, a closer look at its sound financials might cause you to think again. Given that fundamentals usually drive long-term market outcomes, the company is worth looking at. Specifically, we decided to study Valmont Industries' ROE in this article.

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. In simpler terms, it measures the profitability of a company in relation to shareholder's equity.

View our latest analysis for Valmont Industries

How Is ROE Calculated?

The formula for ROE is:

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

So, based on the above formula, the ROE for Valmont Industries is:

19% = US$306m ÷ US$1.6b (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2024).

The 'return' is the yearly profit. So, this means that for every $1 of its shareholder's investments, the company generates a profit of $0.19.

What Has ROE Got To Do With Earnings Growth?

So far, we've learned that ROE is a measure of a company's profitability. Based on how much of its profits the company chooses to reinvest or "retain", we are then able to evaluate a company's future ability to generate profits. 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 Valmont Industries' Earnings Growth And 19% ROE

To start with, Valmont Industries' ROE looks acceptable. Further, the company's ROE is similar to the industry average of 18%. This probably goes some way in explaining Valmont Industries' moderate 9.4% growth over the past five years amongst other factors.

Next, on comparing with the industry net income growth, we found that Valmont Industries' reported growth was lower than the industry growth of 15% over the last few years, which is not something we like to see.

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. Has the market priced in the future outlook for VMI? You can find out in our latest intrinsic value infographic research report.

Is Valmont Industries Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?

In Valmont Industries' case, its respectable earnings growth can probably be explained by its low three-year median payout ratio of 21% (or a retention ratio of 79%), which suggests that the company is investing most of its profits to grow its business.

Moreover, Valmont Industries 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. Our latest analyst data shows that the future payout ratio of the company is expected to drop to 12% over the next three years.

Conclusion

Overall, we are quite pleased with Valmont Industries' performance. Particularly, we like that the company is reinvesting heavily into its business, and at a high rate of return. As a result, the decent growth in its earnings is not surprising. On studying current analyst estimates, we found that analysts expect the company to continue its recent growth streak. 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.