Yahoo Finance Is Reece Limited's (ASX:REH) Latest Stock Performance A Reflection Of Its Financial Health?
Most readers would already be aware that Reece's (ASX:REH) stock increased significantly by 26% over the past three months. Given the company's impressive performance, we decided to study its financial indicators more closely as a company's financial health over the long-term usually dictates market outcomes. Particularly, we will be paying attention to Reece'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. In short, ROE shows the profit each dollar generates with respect to its shareholder investments.
Check out our latest analysis for Reece
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 Reece is:
12% = AU$425m ÷ AU$3.7b (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2023).
The 'return' is the amount earned after tax over the last twelve months. That means that for every A$1 worth of shareholders' equity, the company generated A$0.12 in profit.
What Is The Relationship Between ROE And Earnings Growth?
Thus far, we have learned that ROE measures how efficiently a company is generating its profits. 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.
Reece's Earnings Growth And 12% ROE
At first glance, Reece seems to have a decent ROE. Further, the company's ROE is similar to the industry average of 12%. Consequently, this likely laid the ground for the decent growth of 17% seen over the past five years by Reece.
We then compared Reece's net income growth with the industry and found that the company's growth figure is lower than the average industry growth rate of 27% in the same 5-year period, which is a bit concerning.
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. Doing so will help them establish if the stock's future looks promising or ominous. If you're wondering about Reece's's valuation, check out this gauge of its price-to-earnings ratio, as compared to its industry.
Is Reece Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?
Reece has a healthy combination of a moderate three-year median payout ratio of 38% (or a retention ratio of 62%) and a respectable amount of growth in earnings as we saw above, meaning that the company has been making efficient use of its profits.
Moreover, Reece 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. Our latest analyst data shows that the future payout ratio of the company over the next three years is expected to be approximately 40%. As a result, Reece's ROE is not expected to change by much either, which we inferred from the analyst estimate of 11% for future ROE.
Conclusion
In total, we are pretty happy with Reece's performance. Particularly, we like that the company is reinvesting heavily into its business, and at a high rate of return. As a result, the decent growth in its earnings is not surprising. That being so, a study of the latest analyst forecasts show that the company is expected to see a slowdown in its future earnings growth. 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.
