Devon Energy Corporation's (NYSE:DVN) Stock's On An Uptrend: Are Strong Financials Guiding The Market?

editorial-team@simplywallst.com (Simply Wall St)

Sun, Apr 21, 2024, 7:00 AM 4 min read

Devon Energy's (NYSE:DVN) stock is up by a considerable 27% over the past three months. 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. Specifically, we decided to study Devon Energy's ROE in this article.

Return on equity or ROE is an important factor to be considered by a shareholder because it tells them how effectively their capital is being reinvested. In simpler terms, it measures the profitability of a company in relation to shareholder's equity.

See our latest analysis for Devon Energy

How To Calculate Return On Equity?

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 Devon Energy is:

31% = US$3.8b ÷ US$12b (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2023).

The 'return' refers to a company's earnings over the last year. One way to conceptualize this is that for each $1 of shareholders' capital it has, the company made $0.31 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. 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.

Devon Energy's Earnings Growth And 31% ROE

To begin with, Devon Energy has a pretty high ROE which is interesting. Second, a comparison with the average ROE reported by the industry of 21% also doesn't go unnoticed by us. As a result, Devon Energy's exceptional 50% net income growth seen over the past five years, doesn't come as a surprise.

As a next step, we compared Devon Energy's 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 37%.

past-earnings-growth — NYSE:DVN Past Earnings Growth April 21st 2024

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. What is DVN worth today? The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether DVN is currently mispriced by the market.

Is Devon Energy Making Efficient Use Of Its Profits?

Devon Energy has a significant three-year median payout ratio of 50%, meaning the company only retains 50% of its income. This implies that the company has been able to achieve high earnings growth despite returning most of its profits to shareholders.

Moreover, Devon Energy is determined to keep sharing its profits with shareholders which we infer from its long history of paying a dividend for at least ten years. Upon studying the latest analysts' consensus data, we found that the company's future payout ratio is expected to drop to 24% over the next three years. However, Devon Energy's future ROE is expected to decline to 20% despite the expected decline in its payout ratio. We infer that there could be other factors that could be steering the foreseen decline in the company's ROE.

Conclusion

On the whole, we feel that Devon Energy's performance has been quite good. In particular, its high ROE is quite noteworthy and also the probable explanation behind its considerable earnings growth. Yet, the company is retaining a small portion of its profits. Which means that the company has been able to grow its earnings in spite of it, so that's not too bad. With that said, on studying the latest analyst forecasts, we found that while the company has seen growth in its past earnings, analysts expect its future earnings to shrink. To know more about the company's future earnings growth forecasts take a look at this free report on analyst forecasts for the company to find out more.

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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.