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It is hard to get excited after looking at Russel Metals' (TSE:RUS) recent performance, when its stock has declined 9.8% over the past three months. But if you pay close attention, you might find that its key financial indicators look quite decent, which could mean that the stock could potentially rise in the long-term given how markets usually reward more resilient long-term fundamentals. Specifically, we decided to study Russel Metals' ROE in this article.
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.
See our latest analysis for Russel Metals
How Do You Calculate Return On Equity?
The formula for ROE is:
Return on Equity = Net Profit (from continuing operations) ÷ Shareholders' Equity
So, based on the above formula, the ROE for Russel Metals is:
9.7% = CA$161m ÷ CA$1.7b (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2024).
The 'return' is the yearly profit. One way to conceptualize this is that for each CA$1 of shareholders' capital it has, the company made CA$0.10 in profit.
What Has ROE Got To Do With Earnings Growth?
So far, we've learned that ROE is a measure of a company's profitability. 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.
Russel Metals' Earnings Growth And 9.7% ROE
On the face of it, Russel Metals' ROE is not much to talk about. Yet, a closer study shows that the company's ROE is similar to the industry average of 9.1%. On the other hand, Russel Metals reported a moderate 17% net income growth over the past five years. Taking into consideration that the ROE is not particularly high, we reckon that there could also be other factors at play which could be influencing the company's growth. Such as - high earnings retention or an efficient management in place.
As a next step, we compared Russel Metals' 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 16% in the same period.
Earnings growth is a huge factor in stock valuation. The investor should try to establish if the expected growth or decline in earnings, whichever the case may be, is priced in. Doing so will help them establish if the stock's future looks promising or ominous. Has the market priced in the future outlook for RUS? You can find out in our latest intrinsic value infographic research report.