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Preformed Line Products Company's (NASDAQ:PLPC) Fundamentals Look Pretty Strong: Could The Market Be Wrong About The Stock?

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With its stock down 6.7% over the past month, it is easy to disregard Preformed Line Products (NASDAQ:PLPC). But if you pay close attention, you might find that its key financial indicators look quite decent, which could mean that the stock could potentially rise in the long-term given how markets usually reward more resilient long-term fundamentals. In this article, we decided to focus on Preformed Line Products' ROE.

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. Put another way, it reveals the company's success at turning shareholder investments into profits.

Check out our latest analysis for Preformed Line 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 Preformed Line Products is:

7.7% = US$33m ÷ US$429m (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2024).

The 'return' is the income the business earned over the last year. So, this means that for every $1 of its shareholder's investments, the company generates a profit of $0.08.

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. 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. 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.

A Side By Side comparison of Preformed Line Products' Earnings Growth And 7.7% ROE

When you first look at it, Preformed Line Products' ROE doesn't look that attractive. We then compared the company's ROE to the broader industry and were disappointed to see that the ROE is lower than the industry average of 11%. Although, we can see that Preformed Line Products saw a modest net income growth of 17% over the past five years. We reckon that there could be other factors at play here. Such as - high earnings retention or an efficient management in place.

As a next step, we compared Preformed Line Products' net income growth with the industry and found that the company has a similar growth figure when compared with the industry average growth rate of 16% in the same period.

past-earnings-growth
NasdaqGS:PLPC Past Earnings Growth January 11th 2025

Earnings growth is an important metric to consider when valuing a stock. What investors need to determine next is if the expected earnings growth, or the lack of it, is already built into the share price. 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 Preformed Line Products''s valuation, check out this gauge of its price-to-earnings ratio, as compared to its industry.