Fortune Brands Home & Security, Inc.'s (NYSE:FBHS) Stock Been Rising: Are Strong Financials Guiding The Market?
Fortune Brands Home & Security's (NYSE:FBHS) stock up by 2.8% 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. In this article, we decided to focus on Fortune Brands Home & Security's ROE.
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. Simply put, it is used to assess the profitability of a company in relation to its equity capital.
Check out our latest analysis for Fortune Brands Home & Security
How To Calculate Return On Equity?
Return on equity 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 Fortune Brands Home & Security is:
20% = US$554m ÷ US$2.8b (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2020).
The 'return' is the yearly profit. Another way to think of that is that for every $1 worth of equity, the company was able to earn $0.20 in profit.
Why Is ROE Important For Earnings Growth?
So far, we've learned that ROE is a measure of a company's profitability. 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.
Fortune Brands Home & Security's Earnings Growth And 20% ROE
To begin with, Fortune Brands Home & Security seems to have a respectable ROE. On comparing with the average industry ROE of 16% the company's ROE looks pretty remarkable. Probably as a result of this, Fortune Brands Home & Security was able to see a decent growth of 5.4% over the last five years.
As a next step, we compared Fortune Brands Home & Security's net income growth with the industry and found that the company has a similar growth figure when compared with the industry average growth rate of 6.1% in the same period.
Earnings growth is an important metric to consider when valuing a stock. It’s important for an investor to know whether the market has priced in the company's expected earnings growth (or decline). Doing so will help them establish if the stock's future looks promising or ominous. 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 Fortune Brands Home & Security is trading on a high P/E or a low P/E, relative to its industry.
Is Fortune Brands Home & Security Making Efficient Use Of Its Profits?
Fortune Brands Home & Security has a three-year median payout ratio of 28%, which implies that it retains the remaining 72% of its profits. This suggests that its dividend is well covered, and given the decent growth seen by the company, it looks like management is reinvesting its earnings efficiently.
Besides, Fortune Brands Home & Security has been paying dividends over a period of eight years. This shows that the company is committed to sharing profits with its shareholders. Existing analyst estimates suggest that the company's future payout ratio is expected to drop to 20% over the next three years. Despite the lower expected payout ratio, the company's ROE is not expected to change by much.
Conclusion
On the whole, we feel that Fortune Brands Home & Security's performance has been quite good. In particular, it's great to see that the company is investing heavily into its business and along with a high rate of return, that has resulted in a sizeable growth in its earnings. That being so, the latest analyst forecasts show that the company will continue to see an expansion in its earnings. 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.
This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. 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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