Yahoo Finance Has Fortive Corporation's (NYSE:FTV) Impressive Stock Performance Got Anything to Do With Its Fundamentals?
Fortive's (NYSE:FTV) stock is up by a considerable 18% over the past three months. Given that stock prices are usually aligned with a company's financial performance in the long-term, we decided to study its financial indicators more closely to see if they had a hand to play in the recent price move. In this article, we decided to focus on Fortive's ROE.
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.
See our latest analysis for Fortive
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 Fortive is:
8.4% = US$866m ÷ US$10b (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2023).
The 'return' is the amount earned after tax over the last twelve months. So, this means that for every $1 of its shareholder's investments, the company generates a profit of $0.08.
What Has ROE Got To Do With Earnings Growth?
We have already established that ROE serves as an efficient profit-generating gauge for a company's future earnings. 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 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.
Fortive's Earnings Growth And 8.4% ROE
On the face of it, Fortive's ROE is not much to talk about. Next, when compared to the average industry ROE of 12%, the company's ROE leaves us feeling even less enthusiastic. Although, we can see that Fortive saw a modest net income growth of 11% 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.
Next, on comparing with the industry net income growth, we found that Fortive's growth is quite high when compared to the industry average growth of 7.4% in the same period, which is great to see.
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. Is FTV fairly valued? This infographic on the company's intrinsic value has everything you need to know.
Is Fortive Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?
In Fortive's case, its respectable earnings growth can probably be explained by its low three-year median payout ratio of 12% (or a retention ratio of 88%), which suggests that the company is investing most of its profits to grow its business.
Additionally, Fortive has paid dividends over a period of eight 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's future payout ratio is expected to drop to 7.6% over the next three years. The fact that the company's ROE is expected to rise to 13% over the same period is explained by the drop in the payout ratio.
Summary
On the whole, we do feel that Fortive has some positive attributes. Despite its low rate of return, the fact that the company reinvests a very high portion of its profits into its business, no doubt contributed to its high earnings growth. Having said that, looking at the current analyst estimates, we found that the company's earnings are expected to gain momentum. 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.
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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.
