It is hard to get excited after looking at Hochschild Mining's (LON:HOC) recent performance, when its stock has declined 23% over the past three months. However, the company's fundamentals look pretty decent, and long-term financials are usually aligned with future market price movements. Particularly, we will be paying attention to Hochschild Mining's ROE today.

Return on equity or ROE is a key measure used to assess how efficiently a company's management is utilizing the company's capital. In other words, it is a profitability ratio which measures the rate of return on the capital provided by the company's shareholders.

View our latest analysis for Hochschild Mining

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 Hochschild Mining is:

2.5% = US$20m ÷ US$806m (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2020).

The 'return' is the profit over the last twelve months. That means that for every £1 worth of shareholders' equity, the company generated £0.03 in profit.

What Is The Relationship Between ROE And Earnings Growth?

Thus far, we have learned 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 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.

Hochschild Mining's Earnings Growth And 2.5% ROE

It is hard to argue that Hochschild Mining's ROE is much good in and of itself. Even when compared to the industry average of 16%, the ROE figure is pretty disappointing. In spite of this, Hochschild Mining was able to grow its net income considerably, at a rate of 58% in the last five years. We believe that there might be other aspects that are positively influencing the company's earnings growth. Such as – high earnings retention or an efficient management in place.

We then compared Hochschild Mining's net income growth with the industry and we're pleased to see that the company's growth figure is higher when compared with the industry which has a growth rate of 26% in the same 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). Doing so will help them establish if the stock's future looks promising or ominous. Is Hochschild Mining fairly valued compared to other companies? These 3 valuation measures might help you decide.

Is Hochschild Mining Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?

Hochschild Mining has a significant three-year median payout ratio of 89%, meaning the company only retains 11% of its income. This implies that the company has been able to achieve high earnings growth despite returning most of its profits to shareholders.

Besides, Hochschild Mining has been paying dividends for at least ten years or more. This shows that the company is committed to sharing profits with its shareholders. Existing analyst estimates suggest that the company's future payout ratio is expected to drop to 23% over the next three years. Accordingly, the expected drop in the payout ratio explains the expected increase in the company's ROE to 13%, over the same period.

Conclusion

On the whole, we do feel that Hochschild Mining has some positive attributes. While no doubt its earnings growth is pretty substantial, we do feel that the reinvestment rate is pretty low, meaning, the earnings growth number could have been significantly higher had the company been retaining more of its profits. That being so, a study of the latest analyst forecasts show that the company is expected to see a slowdown in its future earnings growth. 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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