Nature’s Sunshine Products (NASDAQ:NATR) has had a great run on the share market with its stock up by a significant 21% over the last three months. However, we wonder if the company’s inconsistent financials would have any adverse impact on the current share price momentum. Particularly, we will be paying attention to Nature’s Sunshine Products’ 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. Simply put, it is used to assess the profitability of a company in relation to its equity capital.
See our latest analysis for Nature’s Sunshine Products
How Do You Calculate Return On Equity?
ROE 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 Nature’s Sunshine Products is:
6.2% = US$8.2m ÷ US$133m (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2020).
The ‘return’ is the amount earned after tax over the last twelve months. That means that for every $1 worth of shareholders’ equity, the company generated $0.06 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.
Nature’s Sunshine Products’ Earnings Growth And 6.2% ROE
On the face of it, Nature’s Sunshine Products’ ROE is not much to talk about. A quick further study shows that the company’s ROE doesn’t compare favorably to the industry average of 21% either. Therefore, it might not be wrong to say that the five year net income decline of 36% seen by Nature’s Sunshine Products was probably the result of it having a lower ROE. We reckon that there could also be other factors at play here. For instance, the company has a very high payout ratio, or is faced with competitive pressures.
That being said, we compared Nature’s Sunshine Products’ 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 12% in the same period.
NasdaqCM:NATR Past Earnings Growth June 19th 2020
Earnings growth is a huge factor in stock valuation. What investors need to determine next is if the expected earnings growth, or the lack of it, is already built into the share price. Doing so will help them establish if the stock’s future looks promising or ominous. If you’re wondering about Nature’s Sunshine Products”s valuation, check out this gauge of its price-to-earnings ratio, as compared to its industry.
Is Nature’s Sunshine Products Making Efficient Use Of Its Profits?
Nature’s Sunshine Products doesn’t pay any dividend, meaning that potentially all of its profits are being reinvested in the business, which doesn’t explain why the company’s earnings have shrunk if it is retaining all of its profits. It looks like there might be some other reasons to explain the lack in that respect. For example, the business could be in decline.
Summary
In total, we’re a bit ambivalent about Nature’s Sunshine Products’ performance. Even though it appears to be retaining most of its profits, given the low ROE, investors may not be benefitting from all that reinvestment after all. The low earnings growth suggests our theory correct. Wrapping up, we would proceed with caution with this company and one way of doing that would be to look at the risk profile of the business. Our risks dashboard would have the 2 risks we have identified for Nature’s Sunshine Products.
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