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Will Aware Inc (NASDAQ:AWRE) Continue To Underperform Its Industry?

The content of this article will benefit those of you who are starting to educate yourself about investing in the stock market and want to learn about Return on Equity using a real-life example.

Aware Inc’s (NASDAQ:AWRE) most recent return on equity was a substandard 0.3% relative to its industry performance of 11.4% over the past year. Though AWRE’s recent performance is underwhelming, it is useful to understand what ROE is made up of and how it should be interpreted. Knowing these components can change your views on AWRE’s below-average returns. Metrics such as financial leverage can impact the level of ROE which in turn can affect the sustainability of AWRE’s returns. Let me show you what I mean by this.

View our latest analysis for Aware

Breaking down ROE — the mother of all ratios

Return on Equity (ROE) weighs Aware’s profit against the level of its shareholders’ equity. For example, if the company invests $1 in the form of equity, it will generate $0.0031 in earnings from this. In most cases, a higher ROE is preferred; however, there are many other factors we must consider prior to making any investment decisions.

Return on Equity = Net Profit ÷ Shareholders Equity

ROE is measured against cost of equity in order to determine the efficiency of Aware’s equity capital deployed. Its cost of equity is 10.7%. Since Aware’s return does not cover its cost, with a difference of -10.4%, this means its current use of equity is not efficient and not sustainable. Very simply, Aware pays more for its capital than what it generates in return. ROE can be dissected into three distinct ratios: net profit margin, asset turnover, and financial leverage. This is called the Dupont Formula:

Dupont Formula

ROE = profit margin × asset turnover × financial leverage

ROE = (annual net profit ÷ sales) × (sales ÷ assets) × (assets ÷ shareholders’ equity)

ROE = annual net profit ÷ shareholders’ equity

NasdaqGM:AWRE Last Perf September 24th 18
NasdaqGM:AWRE Last Perf September 24th 18

Basically, profit margin measures how much of revenue trickles down into earnings which illustrates how efficient the business is with its cost management. Asset turnover reveals how much revenue can be generated from Aware’s asset base. And finally, financial leverage is simply how much of assets are funded by equity, which exhibits how sustainable the company’s capital structure is. Since financial leverage can artificially inflate ROE, we need to look at how much debt Aware currently has. Currently, Aware has no debt which means its returns are driven purely by equity capital. This could explain why Aware’s’ ROE is lower than its industry peers, most of which may have some degree of debt in its business.

NasdaqGM:AWRE Historical Debt September 24th 18
NasdaqGM:AWRE Historical Debt September 24th 18

Next Steps:

ROE is one of many ratios which meaningfully dissects financial statements, which illustrates the quality of a company. Aware’s below-industry ROE is disappointing, furthermore, its returns were not even high enough to cover its own cost of equity. However, ROE is not likely to be inflated by excessive debt funding, giving shareholders more conviction in the sustainability of returns, which has headroom to increase further. Although ROE can be a useful metric, it is only a small part of diligent research.

For Aware, I’ve compiled three important aspects you should further examine:

  1. Financial Health: Does it have a healthy balance sheet? Take a look at our free balance sheet analysis with six simple checks on key factors like leverage and risk.

  2. Future Earnings: How does Aware’s growth rate compare to its peers and the wider market? Dig deeper into the analyst consensus number for the upcoming years by interacting with our free analyst growth expectation chart.

  3. Other High-Growth Alternatives : Are there other high-growth stocks you could be holding instead of Aware? Explore our interactive list of stocks with large growth potential to get an idea of what else is out there you may be missing!

To help readers see past the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements.

The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned. For errors that warrant correction please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com.

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