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Bechtle (ETR:BC8) has had a rough three months with its share price down 3.4%. However, stock prices are usually driven by a company’s financial performance over the long term, which in this case looks quite promising. Particularly, we will be paying attention to Bechtle's ROE today.
Return on Equity or ROE is a test of how effectively a company is growing its value and managing investors’ money. 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 Bechtle
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 Bechtle is:
16% = €261m ÷ €1.6b (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2023).
The 'return' is the amount earned after tax over the last twelve months. One way to conceptualize this is that for each €1 of shareholders' capital it has, the company made €0.16 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. 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. 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 Bechtle's Earnings Growth And 16% ROE
To start with, Bechtle's ROE looks acceptable. Especially when compared to the industry average of 11% the company's ROE looks pretty impressive. This certainly adds some context to Bechtle's decent 14% net income growth seen over the past five years.
We then performed a comparison between Bechtle's net income growth with the industry, which revealed that the company's growth is similar to the average industry growth of 16% in the same 5-year 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 Bechtle's's valuation, check out this gauge of its price-to-earnings ratio, as compared to its industry.
Is Bechtle Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?
Bechtle has a healthy combination of a moderate three-year median payout ratio of 29% (or a retention ratio of 71%) and a respectable amount of growth in earnings as we saw above, meaning that the company has been making efficient use of its profits.