U.S. markets close in 19 minutes

  • S&P 500

    4,270.72
    -66.72 (-1.54%)
     

  • Dow 30

    33,617.04
    -389.84 (-1.15%)
     

  • Nasdaq

    13,046.26
    -225.06 (-1.70%)
     

  • Russell 2000

    1,764.31
    -19.93 (-1.12%)
     

  • Crude Oil

    90.48
    +0.80 (+0.89%)
     

  • Gold

    1,918.20
    -18.40 (-0.95%)
     

  • Silver

    23.11
    -0.27 (-1.15%)
     

  • EUR/USD

    1.0572
    -0.0022 (-0.21%)
     

  • 10-Yr Bond

    4.5580
    +0.0160 (+0.35%)
     

  • GBP/USD

    1.2159
    -0.0053 (-0.44%)
     

  • USD/JPY

    149.0370
    +0.2020 (+0.14%)
     

  • Bitcoin USD

    26,228.35
    -58.19 (-0.22%)
     

  • CMC Crypto 200

    561.24
    -2.57 (-0.46%)
     

  • FTSE 100

    7,625.72
    +1.73 (+0.02%)
     

  • Nikkei 225

    32,315.05
    -363.57 (-1.11%)
     

Could The Market Be Wrong About Big Lots, Inc. (NYSE:BIG) Given Its Attractive Financial Prospects?

1
Simply Wall St
·4 min read

With its stock down 14% over the past three months, it is easy to disregard Big Lots (NYSE:BIG). 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. Specifically, we decided to study Big Lots' 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 other words, it is a profitability ratio which measures the rate of return on the capital provided by the company's shareholders.

Check out our latest analysis for Big Lots

How Do You Calculate Return On Equity?

ROE 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 Big Lots is:

18% = US$178m ÷ US$1.0b (Based on the trailing twelve months to January 2022).

The 'return' is the profit over the last twelve months. That means that for every $1 worth of shareholders' equity, the company generated $0.18 in profit.

What Has ROE Got To Do With Earnings Growth?

We have already established that ROE serves as an efficient profit-generating gauge for a company's future earnings. We now need to evaluate how much profit the company reinvests or "retains" for future growth which then gives us an idea about the growth potential of the company. 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.

Big Lots' Earnings Growth And 18% ROE

To start with, Big Lots' ROE looks acceptable. Even so, when compared with the average industry ROE of 31%, we aren't very excited. That being the case, the significant five-year 24% net income growth reported by Big Lots comes as a pleasant surprise. We believe that there might be other aspects that are positively influencing the company's earnings growth. For instance, the company has a low payout ratio or is being managed efficiently. Bear in mind, the company does have a respectable ROE. It is just that the industry ROE is higher. So this certainly also provides some context to the high earnings growth seen by the company.

We then compared Big Lots' net income growth with the industry and we're pleased to see that the company's growth figure is higher when compared with the industry which has a growth rate of 18% in the same period.

past-earnings-growth
past-earnings-growth

Earnings growth is a huge factor in stock valuation. It’s important for an investor to know whether the market has priced in the company's expected earnings growth (or decline). By doing so, they will have an idea if the stock is headed into clear blue waters or if swampy waters await. What is BIG worth today? The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether BIG is currently mispriced by the market.

Is Big Lots Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?

Big Lots' ' three-year median payout ratio is on the lower side at 18% implying that it is retaining a higher percentage (82%) of its profits. This suggests that the management is reinvesting most of the profits to grow the business as evidenced by the growth seen by the company.

Additionally, Big Lots has paid dividends over a period of eight years which means that the company is pretty serious about sharing its profits with shareholders. Upon studying the latest analysts' consensus data, we found that the company's future payout ratio is expected to rise to 23% over the next three years. Accordingly, the expected increase in the payout ratio explains the expected decline in the company's ROE to 13%, over the same period.

Conclusion

Overall, we are quite pleased with Big Lots' performance. In particular, it's great to see that the company has seen significant growth in its earnings backed by a respectable ROE and a high reinvestment rate. Having said that, on studying current analyst estimates, we were concerned to see that while the company has grown its earnings in the past, analysts expect its earnings to shrink in the future. 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.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.

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.