Prestige Consumer Healthcare Inc.'s (NYSE:PBH) Fundamentals Look Pretty Strong: Could The Market Be Wrong About The Stock?

Prestige Consumer Healthcare (NYSE:PBH) has had a rough three months with its share price down 19%. 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 Prestige Consumer Healthcare's 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. Put another way, it reveals the company's success at turning shareholder investments into profits.

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How Do You Calculate Return On Equity?

Return on equity can be calculated by using the formula:

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

So, based on the above formula, the ROE for Prestige Consumer Healthcare is:

11% = US$213m ÷ US$1.9b (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2025).

The 'return' refers to a company's earnings over the last year. That means that for every $1 worth of shareholders' equity, the company generated $0.11 in profit.

View our latest analysis for Prestige Consumer Healthcare

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. 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.

Prestige Consumer Healthcare's Earnings Growth And 11% ROE

To begin with, Prestige Consumer Healthcare seems to have a respectable ROE. Even so, when compared with the average industry ROE of 18%, we aren't very excited. Moreover, Prestige Consumer Healthcare's net income shrunk at a rate of 2.3%over the past five years. Bear in mind, the company does have a high ROE. It is just that the industry ROE is higher. Hence there might be some other aspects that are causing earnings to shrink. These include low earnings retention or poor allocation of capital.

That being said, we compared Prestige Consumer Healthcare's performance with the industry and were concerned when we found that while the company has shrunk its earnings, the industry has grown its earnings at a rate of 9.8% in the same 5-year period.

Earnings growth is a huge factor in stock valuation. It’s important for an investor to know whether the market has priced in the company's expected earnings growth (or decline). By doing so, they will have an idea if the stock is headed into clear blue waters or if swampy waters await. Is Prestige Consumer Healthcare fairly valued compared to other companies? These 3 valuation measures might help you decide.

Is Prestige Consumer Healthcare Making Efficient Use Of Its Profits?

Because Prestige Consumer Healthcare doesn't pay any regular dividends, we infer that it is retaining all of its profits, which is rather perplexing when you consider the fact that there is no earnings growth to show for it. So there could be some other explanations in that regard. For instance, the company's business may be deteriorating.

Summary

On the whole, we do feel that Prestige Consumer Healthcare has some positive attributes. However, while the company does have a decent ROE and a high profit retention, its earnings growth number is quite disappointing. This suggests that there might be some external threat to the business, that's hampering growth. Having said that, looking at current analyst estimates, we found that the company's earnings growth rate is expected to see a huge improvement. To know more about the latest analysts predictions for the company, check out this visualization of analyst forecasts 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.