Adient plc’s (NYSE:ADNT) Stock Has Shown Weakness Lately But Financial Prospects Look Decent: Is The Market Wrong?

It is hard to get excited after looking at Adient’s (NYSE:ADNT) recent performance, when its stock has declined 24% 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. In this article, we decided to focus on Adient’s ROE.

Return on Equity or ROE is a test of how effectively a company is growing its value and managing investors’ money. Put another way, it reveals the company’s success at turning shareholder investments into profits.

View our latest analysis for Adient

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 Adient is:

3.6% = US$93m ÷ US$2.6b (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2023).

The ‘return’ is the amount earned after tax over the last twelve months. So, this means that for every $1 of its shareholder’s investments, the company generates a profit of $0.04.

What Has ROE Got To Do With 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 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.

Adient’s Earnings Growth And 3.6% ROE

It is hard to argue that Adient’s ROE is much good in and of itself. Not just that, even compared to the industry average of 14%, the company’s ROE is entirely unremarkable. However, we we’re pleasantly surprised to see that Adient grew its net income at a significant rate of 51% in the last five years. Therefore, there could be other reasons behind this growth. Such as – high earnings retention or an efficient management in place.

Next, on comparing with the industry net income growth, we found that Adient’s growth is quite high when compared to the industry average growth of 9.7% in the same period, which is great to see.

past-earnings-growth

past-earnings-growth

Earnings growth is a huge factor in stock valuation. The investor should try to establish if the expected growth or decline in earnings, whichever the case may be, is priced in. Doing so will help them establish if the stock’s future looks promising or ominous. Has the market priced in the future outlook for ADNT? You can find out in our latest intrinsic value infographic research report.

Is Adient Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?

Given that Adient doesn’t pay any dividend to its shareholders, we infer that the company has been reinvesting all of its profits to grow its business.

Conclusion

Overall, we feel that Adient certainly does have some positive factors to consider. Despite its low rate of return, the fact that the company reinvests a very high portion of its profits into its business, no doubt contributed to its high earnings growth. We also studied the latest analyst forecasts and found that the company’s earnings growth is expected be similar to its current growth rate. 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.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.

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.

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