Yahoo Finance Bristol-Myers Squibb Company's (NYSE:BMY) Fundamentals Look Pretty Strong: Could The Market Be Wrong About The Stock?
Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY) has had a rough month with its share price down 3.0%. However, stock prices are usually driven by a company’s financials over the long term, which in this case look pretty respectable. In this article, we decided to focus on Bristol-Myers Squibb's ROE.
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 short, ROE shows the profit each dollar generates with respect to its shareholder investments.
View our latest analysis for Bristol-Myers Squibb
How To Calculate Return On Equity?
The formula for ROE is:
Return on Equity = Net Profit (from continuing operations) ÷ Shareholders' Equity
So, based on the above formula, the ROE for Bristol-Myers Squibb is:
2.0% = US$979m ÷ US$50b (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2020).
The 'return' is the profit over the last twelve months. Another way to think of that is that for every $1 worth of equity, the company was able to earn $0.02 in profit.
What Is The Relationship Between ROE And Earnings Growth?
Thus far, we have learnt that ROE measures how efficiently a company is generating its profits. 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 everything else remains unchanged, the higher the ROE and profit retention, the higher the growth rate of a company compared to companies that don't necessarily bear these characteristics.
Bristol-Myers Squibb's Earnings Growth And 2.0% ROE
As you can see, Bristol-Myers Squibb's ROE looks pretty weak. Even compared to the average industry ROE of 19%, the company's ROE is quite dismal. However, the moderate 11% net income growth seen by Bristol-Myers Squibb over the past five years is definitely a positive. Therefore, the growth in earnings could probably have been caused by other variables. Such as - high earnings retention or an efficient management in place.
As a next step, we compared Bristol-Myers Squibb's net income growth with the industry and found that the company has a similar growth figure when compared with the industry average growth rate of 13% 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. 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 Bristol-Myers Squibb is trading on a high P/E or a low P/E, relative to its industry.
Is Bristol-Myers Squibb Making Efficient Use Of Its Profits?
While Bristol-Myers Squibb has a three-year median payout ratio of 61% (which means it retains 39% of profits), the company has still seen a fair bit of earnings growth in the past, meaning that its high payout ratio hasn't hampered its ability to grow.
Besides, Bristol-Myers Squibb has been paying dividends for at least ten years or more. This shows that the company is committed to sharing profits with its shareholders. Upon studying the latest analysts' consensus data, we found that the company's future payout ratio is expected to drop to 26% over the next three years. The fact that the company's ROE is expected to rise to 33% over the same period is explained by the drop in the payout ratio.
Summary
On the whole, we do feel that Bristol-Myers Squibb has some positive attributes. Namely, its high earnings growth. We do however feel that the earnings growth number could have been even higher, had the company been reinvesting more of its earnings and paid out less dividends. That being so, the latest analyst forecasts show that the company will continue to see an expansion in its earnings. To know more about the latest analysts predictions for the company, check out this visualization of analyst forecasts for the company.
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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