Are Strong Financial Prospects The Force That Is Driving The Momentum In Worthington Industries, Inc.'s NYSE:WOR) Stock?
Most readers would already be aware that Worthington Industries' (NYSE:WOR) stock increased significantly by 17% over the past three months. Since the market usually pay for a company’s long-term fundamentals, we decided to study the company’s key performance indicators to see if they could be influencing the market. In this article, we decided to focus on Worthington Industries' ROE.
ROE or return on equity is a useful tool to assess how effectively a company can generate returns on the investment it received from its shareholders. In other words, it is a profitability ratio which measures the rate of return on the capital provided by the company's shareholders.
View our latest analysis for Worthington Industries
How Is ROE Calculated?
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 Worthington Industries is:
41% = US$580m ÷ US$1.4b (Based on the trailing twelve months to November 2020).
The 'return' is the amount earned after tax over the last twelve months. So, this means that for every $1 of its shareholder's investments, the company generates a profit of $0.41.
Why Is ROE Important For Earnings Growth?
Thus far, we have learned that ROE measures how efficiently a company is generating its profits. 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.
Worthington Industries' Earnings Growth And 41% ROE
Firstly, we acknowledge that Worthington Industries has a significantly high ROE. Additionally, the company's ROE is higher compared to the industry average of 13% which is quite remarkable. As a result, Worthington Industries' exceptional 21% net income growth seen over the past five years, doesn't come as a surprise.
As a next step, we compared Worthington Industries' 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 22% in the same period.
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). Doing so will help them establish if the stock's future looks promising or ominous. If you're wondering about Worthington Industries''s valuation, check out this gauge of its price-to-earnings ratio, as compared to its industry.
Is Worthington Industries Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?
Worthington Industries' three-year median payout ratio is a pretty moderate 29%, meaning the company retains 71% of its income. This suggests that its dividend is well covered, and given the high growth we discussed above, it looks like Worthington Industries is reinvesting its earnings efficiently.
Moreover, Worthington Industries 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. Upon studying the latest analysts' consensus data, we found that the company is expected to keep paying out approximately 29% of its profits over the next three years. Still, forecasts suggest that Worthington Industries' future ROE will drop to 12% even though the the company's payout ratio is not expected to change by much.
Conclusion
Overall, we are quite pleased with Worthington Industries' 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 substantial growth in its earnings. That being so, according to the latest industry analyst forecasts, the company's earnings are expected to shrink in the future. Are these analysts expectations based on the broad expectations for the industry, or on the company's fundamentals? Click here to be taken to our analyst's forecasts page for the company.
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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