American States Water Company's (NYSE:AWR) Recent Stock Performance Looks Decent- Can Strong Fundamentals Be the Reason?
American States Water's (NYSE:AWR) stock is up by 3.7% over the past month. Given that the market rewards strong financials in the long-term, we wonder if that is the case in this instance. Specifically, we decided to study American States Water's ROE in this article.
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 American States Water
How Do You Calculate Return On Equity?
The formula for ROE is:
Return on Equity = Net Profit (from continuing operations) ÷ Shareholders' Equity
So, based on the above formula, the ROE for American States Water is:
14% = US$94m ÷ US$679m (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2021).
The 'return' is the income the business earned over the last year. One way to conceptualize this is that for each $1 of shareholders' capital it has, the company made $0.14 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. 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. Generally speaking, other things being equal, firms with a high return on equity and profit retention, have a higher growth rate than firms that don’t share these attributes.
A Side By Side comparison of American States Water's Earnings Growth And 14% ROE
At first glance, American States Water seems to have a decent ROE. Further, the company's ROE compares quite favorably to the industry average of 9.7%. Probably as a result of this, American States Water was able to see a decent growth of 9.5% over the last five years.
We then performed a comparison between American States Water's net income growth with the industry, which revealed that the company's growth is similar to the average industry growth of 9.6% in the same period.
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. This then helps them determine if the stock is placed for a bright or bleak future. One good indicator of expected earnings growth is the P/E ratio which determines the price the market is willing to pay for a stock based on its earnings prospects. So, you may want to check if American States Water is trading on a high P/E or a low P/E, relative to its industry.
Is American States Water Using Its Retained Earnings Effectively?
While American States Water has a three-year median payout ratio of 54% (which means it retains 46% of profits), the company has still seen a fair bit of earnings growth in the past, meaning that its high payout ratio hasn't hampered its ability to grow.
Moreover, American States Water 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. 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 59%. As a result, American States Water's ROE is not expected to change by much either, which we inferred from the analyst estimate of 14% for future ROE.
Conclusion
In total, we are pretty happy with American States Water'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. 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.
