Yahoo Finance Declining Stock and Solid Fundamentals: Is The Market Wrong About Fidelity National Financial, Inc. (NYSE:FNF)?
With its stock down 25% over the past three months, it is easy to disregard Fidelity National Financial (NYSE:FNF). However, a closer look at its sound financials might cause you to think again. Given that fundamentals usually drive long-term market outcomes, the company is worth looking at. In this article, we decided to focus on Fidelity National Financial's 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. In other words, it is a profitability ratio which measures the rate of return on the capital provided by the company's shareholders.
View our latest analysis for Fidelity National Financial
How Is ROE Calculated?
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 Fidelity National Financial is:
27% = US$2.2b ÷ US$8.1b (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2022).
The 'return' is the yearly profit. So, this means that for every $1 of its shareholder's investments, the company generates a profit of $0.27.
What Is The Relationship Between ROE And 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. Assuming everything else remains unchanged, the higher the ROE and profit retention, the higher the growth rate of a company compared to companies that don't necessarily bear these characteristics.
Fidelity National Financial's Earnings Growth And 27% ROE
First thing first, we like that Fidelity National Financial has an impressive ROE. Second, a comparison with the average ROE reported by the industry of 12% also doesn't go unnoticed by us. Under the circumstances, Fidelity National Financial's considerable five year net income growth of 36% was to be expected.
As a next step, we compared Fidelity National Financial'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 14%.
Earnings growth is an important metric to consider when valuing a stock. The investor should try to establish if the expected growth or decline in earnings, whichever the case may be, is priced in. Doing so will help them establish if the stock's future looks promising or ominous. If you're wondering about Fidelity National Financial's's valuation, check out this gauge of its price-to-earnings ratio, as compared to its industry.
Is Fidelity National Financial Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?
Fidelity National Financial's three-year median payout ratio is a pretty moderate 32%, meaning the company retains 68% of its income. So it seems that Fidelity National Financial is reinvesting efficiently in a way that it sees impressive growth in its earnings (discussed above) and pays a dividend that's well covered.
Additionally, Fidelity National Financial has paid dividends over a period of at least ten years which means that the company is pretty serious about sharing its profits with shareholders. Upon studying the latest analysts' consensus data, we found that the company is expected to keep paying out approximately 30% of its profits over the next three years. Regardless, Fidelity National Financial's ROE is speculated to decline to 17% despite there being no anticipated change in its payout ratio.
Conclusion
On the whole, we feel that Fidelity National Financial's performance has been quite good. 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. That being so, according to the latest industry analyst forecasts, the company's earnings are expected to shrink in the future. 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.
