Yahoo Finance General Dynamics Corporation (NYSE:GD) Stock's Been Sliding But Fundamentals Look Decent: Will The Market Correct The Share Price In The Future?
General Dynamics (NYSE:GD) has had a rough three months with its share price down 9.1%. However, the company's fundamentals look pretty decent, and long-term financials are usually aligned with future market price movements. Particularly, we will be paying attention to General Dynamics' 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. Put another way, it reveals the company's success at turning shareholder investments into profits.
See our latest analysis for General Dynamics
How Is ROE Calculated?
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 General Dynamics is:
18% = US$3.4b ÷ US$19b (Based on the trailing twelve months to April 2023).
The 'return' refers to a company's earnings over the last year. That means that for every $1 worth of shareholders' equity, the company generated $0.18 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. 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 General Dynamics' Earnings Growth And 18% ROE
To begin with, General Dynamics seems to have a respectable ROE. Especially when compared to the industry average of 12% the company's ROE looks pretty impressive. Given the circumstances, we can't help but wonder why General Dynamics saw little to no growth in the past five years. Based on this, we feel that there might be other reasons which haven't been discussed so far in this article that could be hampering the company's growth. For example, it could be that the company has a high payout ratio or the business has allocated capital poorly, for instance.
We then compared General Dynamics' net income growth with the industry and found that the company's growth figure is lower than the average industry growth rate of 5.7% in the same period, which is a bit concerning.
Earnings growth is a huge factor in stock valuation. 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 GD fairly valued? This infographic on the company's intrinsic value has everything you need to know.
Is General Dynamics Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?
Despite having a normal three-year median payout ratio of 41% (implying that the company keeps 59% of its income) over the last three years, General Dynamics has seen a negligible amount of growth in earnings as we saw above. Therefore, there might be some other reasons to explain the lack in that respect. For example, the business could be in decline.
Moreover, General Dynamics has been paying dividends for at least ten years or more suggesting that management must have perceived that the shareholders prefer dividends over earnings growth. Based on the latest analysts' estimates, we found that the company's future payout ratio over the next three years is expected to hold steady at 38%. As a result, General Dynamics' ROE is not expected to change by much either, which we inferred from the analyst estimate of 20% for future ROE.
Summary
On the whole, we do feel that General Dynamics has some positive attributes. However, given the high ROE and high profit retention, we would expect the company to be delivering strong earnings growth, but that isn't the case here. This suggests that there might be some external threat to the business, that's hampering its growth. Having said that, looking at the current analyst estimates, we found that the company's earnings are expected to gain momentum. 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.
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