Is Weakness In ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:ACAD) Stock A Sign That The Market Could be Wrong Given Its Strong Financial Prospects?

Simply Wall St · 04/08 10:34

With its stock down 17% over the past three months, it is easy to disregard ACADIA Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ACAD). However, stock prices are usually driven by a company’s financial performance over the long term, which in this case looks quite promising. Particularly, we will be paying attention to ACADIA Pharmaceuticals' 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 simpler terms, it measures the profitability of a company in relation to shareholder's equity.

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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 ACADIA Pharmaceuticals is:

31% = US$226m ÷ US$733m (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2024).

The 'return' is the yearly profit. One way to conceptualize this is that for each $1 of shareholders' capital it has, the company made $0.31 in profit.

See our latest analysis for ACADIA Pharmaceuticals

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. 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.

A Side By Side comparison of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals' Earnings Growth And 31% ROE

First thing first, we like that ACADIA Pharmaceuticals has an impressive ROE. Secondly, even when compared to the industry average of 15% the company's ROE is quite impressive. So, the substantial 41% net income growth seen by ACADIA Pharmaceuticals over the past five years isn't overly surprising.

As a next step, we compared ACADIA Pharmaceuticals' 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 21%.

past-earnings-growth
NasdaqGS:ACAD Past Earnings Growth April 8th 2025

The basis for attaching value to a company is, to a great extent, tied to its earnings growth. 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 ACADIA Pharmaceuticals''s valuation, check out this gauge of its price-to-earnings ratio , as compared to its industry.

Is ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Using Its Retained Earnings Effectively?

Given that ACADIA Pharmaceuticals doesn't pay any regular dividends to its shareholders, we infer that the company has been reinvesting all of its profits to grow its business.

Conclusion

In total, we are pretty happy with ACADIA Pharmaceuticals' 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.