Is MP Materials Corp.'s (NYSE:MP) Stock's Recent Performance Being Led By Its Attractive Financial Prospects?

Simply Wall St · 09/15/2023 10:44

MP Materials (NYSE:MP) has had a great run on the share market with its stock up by a significant 5.4% over the last week. Given the company's impressive performance, we decided to study its financial indicators more closely as a company's financial health over the long-term usually dictates market outcomes. Particularly, we will be paying attention to MP Materials' ROE today.

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.

Check out our latest analysis for MP Materials

How Is ROE Calculated?

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 MP Materials is:

13% = US$175m ÷ US$1.4b (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2023).

The 'return' is the profit over the last twelve months. One way to conceptualize this is that for each $1 of shareholders' capital it has, the company made $0.13 in profit.

What Is The Relationship Between ROE And Earnings Growth?

So far, we've learned that ROE is a measure of a company's profitability. 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. Generally speaking, other things being equal, firms with a high return on equity and profit retention, have a higher growth rate than firms that don’t share these attributes.

MP Materials' Earnings Growth And 13% ROE

To begin with, MP Materials seems to have a respectable ROE. Further, the company's ROE is similar to the industry average of 13%. This probably goes some way in explaining MP Materials' significant 70% net income growth over the past five years amongst other factors. We reckon that there could also be other factors at play here. For example, it is possible that the company's management has made some good strategic decisions, or that the company has a low payout ratio.

As a next step, we compared MP Materials' net income growth with the industry, and pleasingly, we found that the growth seen by the company is higher than the average industry growth of 32%.

past-earnings-growth
NYSE:MP Past Earnings Growth September 15th 2023

Earnings growth is an important metric to consider when valuing a stock. 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. If you're wondering about MP Materials''s valuation, check out this gauge of its price-to-earnings ratio, as compared to its industry.

Is MP Materials Making Efficient Use Of Its Profits?

MP Materials doesn't pay any dividend currently which essentially means that it has been reinvesting all of its profits into the business. This definitely contributes to the high earnings growth number that we discussed above.

Conclusion

Overall, we are quite pleased with MP Materials' performance. Particularly, we like that the company is reinvesting heavily into its business, and at a high rate of return. Unsurprisingly, this has led to an impressive earnings growth. Having said that, the company's earnings growth is expected to slow down, as forecasted in the current analyst estimates. 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.