Yahoo Finance Fletcher Building Limited's (NZSE:FBU) Stock Has Been Sliding But Fundamentals Look Strong: Is The Market Wrong?
With its stock down 8.5% over the past three months, it is easy to disregard Fletcher Building (NZSE:FBU). 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 Fletcher Building's ROE today.
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 simpler terms, it measures the profitability of a company in relation to shareholder's equity.
See our latest analysis for Fletcher Building
How To Calculate Return On Equity?
The formula for return on equity is:
Return on Equity = Net Profit (from continuing operations) ÷ Shareholders' Equity
So, based on the above formula, the ROE for Fletcher Building is:
12% = NZ$439m ÷ NZ$3.8b (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2022).
The 'return' is the yearly profit. So, this means that for every NZ$1 of its shareholder's investments, the company generates a profit of NZ$0.12.
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.
Fletcher Building's Earnings Growth And 12% ROE
To begin with, Fletcher Building seems to have a respectable ROE. Even when compared to the industry average of 12% the company's ROE looks quite decent. This probably goes some way in explaining Fletcher Building's significant 43% net income growth over the past five years amongst other factors. We believe that there might also be other aspects that are positively influencing the company's earnings growth. 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 Fletcher Building's growth is quite high when compared to the industry average growth of 12% in the same period, which is great to see.
Earnings growth is a huge factor in stock valuation. What investors need to determine next is if the expected earnings growth, or the lack of it, is already built into the share price. Doing so will help them establish if the stock's future looks promising or ominous. What is FBU worth today? The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether FBU is currently mispriced by the market.
Is Fletcher Building Making Efficient Use Of Its Profits?
Fletcher Building's significant three-year median payout ratio of 77% (where it is retaining only 23% of its income) suggests that the company has been able to achieve a high growth in earnings despite returning most of its income to shareholders.
Additionally, Fletcher Building 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. Our latest analyst data shows that the future payout ratio of the company over the next three years is expected to be approximately 69%. As a result, Fletcher Building's ROE is not expected to change by much either, which we inferred from the analyst estimate of 11% for future ROE.
Summary
Overall, we are quite pleased with Fletcher Building's performance. Especially the high ROE, Which has contributed to the impressive growth seen in earnings. Despite the company reinvesting only a small portion of its profits, it still has managed to grow its earnings so that is appreciable. Having said that, the company's earnings growth is expected to slow down, as forecasted in the current analyst estimates. 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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