Yahoo Finance Declining Stock and Decent Financials: Is The Market Wrong About Fletcher Building Limited (NZSE:FBU)?
With its stock down 27% over the past three months, it is easy to disregard Fletcher Building (NZSE:FBU). 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. Specifically, we decided to study Fletcher Building's ROE in this article.
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. Put another way, it reveals the company's success at turning shareholder investments into profits.
See our latest analysis for Fletcher Building
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 Fletcher Building is:
9.8% = NZ$367m ÷ NZ$3.7b (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2021).
The 'return' refers to a company's earnings over the last year. Another way to think of that is that for every NZ$1 worth of equity, the company was able to earn NZ$0.10 in profit.
Why Is ROE Important For Earnings Growth?
We have already established that ROE serves as an efficient profit-generating gauge for a company's future earnings. Depending on how much of these profits the company reinvests or "retains", and how effectively it does so, we are then able to assess a company’s earnings growth potential. 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 Fletcher Building's Earnings Growth And 9.8% ROE
At first glance, Fletcher Building's ROE doesn't look very promising. Yet, a closer study shows that the company's ROE is similar to the industry average of 11%. Having said that, Fletcher Building has shown a modest net income growth of 11% over the past five years. Given the slightly low ROE, it is likely that there could be some other aspects that are driving this growth. Such as - high earnings retention or an efficient management in place.
We then performed a comparison between Fletcher Building's net income growth with the industry, which revealed that the company's growth is similar to the average industry growth of 9.6% in the same period.
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 Fletcher Building's's valuation, check out this gauge of its price-to-earnings ratio, as compared to its industry.
Is Fletcher Building Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?
While Fletcher Building has a three-year median payout ratio of 71% (which means it retains 29% of profits), the company has still seen a fair bit of earnings growth in the past, meaning that its high payout ratio hasn't hampered its ability to grow.
Besides, Fletcher Building has been paying dividends for at least ten years or more. This shows that the company is committed to sharing profits with its shareholders. Our latest analyst data shows that the future payout ratio of the company over the next three years is expected to be approximately 65%. However, Fletcher Building's ROE is predicted to rise to 13% despite there being no anticipated change in its payout ratio.
Summary
In total, it does look like Fletcher Building has some positive aspects to its business. That is, quite an impressive growth in earnings. However, the low profit retention means that the company's earnings growth could have been higher, had it been reinvesting a higher portion of its profits. Having said that, the company's earnings growth is expected to slow down, as forecasted in the current analyst estimates. To know more about the latest analysts predictions for the company, check out this visualization of analyst forecasts for the company.
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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.
