Yahoo Finance Goodman Group (ASX:GMG) Stock Has Shown Weakness Lately But Financials Look Strong: Should Prospective Shareholders Make The Leap?
Goodman Group (ASX:GMG) has had a rough three months with its share price down 17%. 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. Particularly, we will be paying attention to Goodman Group's 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.
View our latest analysis for Goodman Group
How Do You 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 Goodman Group is:
22% = AU$3.3b ÷ AU$15b (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2021).
The 'return' is the profit over the last twelve months. That means that for every A$1 worth of shareholders' equity, the company generated A$0.22 in profit.
What Is The Relationship Between ROE And Earnings Growth?
So far, we've learned that ROE is a measure of a company's profitability. 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.
Goodman Group's Earnings Growth And 22% ROE
To start with, Goodman Group's ROE looks acceptable. On comparing with the average industry ROE of 15% the company's ROE looks pretty remarkable. This certainly adds some context to Goodman Group's exceptional 25% net income growth seen over the past five years. We reckon that there could also be other factors at play here. For example, it is possible that the company's management has made some good strategic decisions, or that the company has a low payout ratio.
Next, on comparing with the industry net income growth, we found that Goodman Group's growth is quite high when compared to the industry average growth of 11% in the same period, which is great to see.
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. This then helps them determine if the stock is placed for a bright or bleak future. What is GMG worth today? The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether GMG is currently mispriced by the market.
Is Goodman Group Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?
Goodman Group seems to be paying out most of its income as dividends judging by its three-year median payout ratio of 55%, meaning the company retains only 45% of its income. However, this is typical for REITs as they are often required by law to distribute most of their earnings. Regardless, this hasn't hampered its ability to grow as we saw earlier.
Moreover, Goodman Group is determined to keep sharing its profits with shareholders which we infer from its long history of paying a dividend for at least ten years. Existing analyst estimates suggest that the company's future payout ratio is expected to drop to 37% over the next three years. Regardless, the future ROE for Goodman Group is predicted to decline to 10% despite the anticipated decrease in the payout ratio. We reckon that there could probably be other factors that could be driving the forseen decline in the company's ROE.
Conclusion
In total, we are pretty happy with Goodman Group's performance. We are particularly impressed by the considerable earnings growth posted by the company, which was likely backed by its high ROE. While the company is paying out most of its earnings as dividends, it has been able to grow its earnings in spite of it, so that's probably a good sign. With that said, on studying the latest analyst forecasts, we found that while the company has seen growth in its past earnings, analysts expect its future earnings to shrink. 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.
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