Agilent Technologies, Inc.'s (NYSE:A) Stock Has Fared Decently: Is the Market Following Strong Financials?
Agilent Technologies' (NYSE:A) stock is up by 8.4% over the past three months. Since the market usually pay for a company’s long-term financial health, we decided to study the company’s fundamentals to see if they could be influencing the market. Particularly, we will be paying attention to Agilent Technologies' ROE today.
Return on Equity or ROE is a test of how effectively a company is growing its value and managing investors’ money. Simply put, it is used to assess the profitability of a company in relation to its equity capital.
See our latest analysis for Agilent Technologies
How Do You 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 Agilent Technologies is:
26% = US$1.3b ÷ US$5.1b (Based on the trailing twelve months to July 2022).
The 'return' is the amount earned after tax over the last twelve months. One way to conceptualize this is that for each $1 of shareholders' capital it has, the company made $0.26 in profit.
What Is The Relationship Between ROE And Earnings Growth?
We have already established that ROE serves as an efficient profit-generating gauge for a company's future earnings. Based on how much of its profits the company chooses to reinvest or "retain", we are then able to evaluate a company's future ability to generate profits. 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.
Agilent Technologies' Earnings Growth And 26% ROE
Firstly, we acknowledge that Agilent Technologies has a significantly high ROE. Second, a comparison with the average ROE reported by the industry of 17% also doesn't go unnoticed by us. This probably laid the groundwork for Agilent Technologies' moderate 19% net income growth seen over the past five years.
We then compared Agilent Technologies' net income growth with the industry and found that the company's growth figure is lower than the average industry growth rate of 35% 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. This then helps them determine if the stock is placed for a bright or bleak future. What is A worth today? The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether A is currently mispriced by the market.
Is Agilent Technologies Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?
Agilent Technologies' three-year median payout ratio to shareholders is 24% (implying that it retains 76% of its income), which is on the lower side, so it seems like the management is reinvesting profits heavily to grow its business.
Additionally, Agilent Technologies 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. Existing analyst estimates suggest that the company's future payout ratio is expected to drop to 17% over the next three years. Despite the lower expected payout ratio, the company's ROE is not expected to change by much.
Conclusion
In total, we are pretty happy with Agilent Technologies' performance. Specifically, we like that the company is reinvesting a huge chunk of its profits at a high rate of return. This of course has caused the company to see a good amount of growth in its earnings. 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 company's future earnings growth forecasts take a look at this free report on analyst forecasts for the company to find out more.
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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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