Yahoo Finance Is Alphabet Inc.'s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Latest Stock Performance A Reflection Of Its Financial Health?
Most readers would already be aware that Alphabet's (NASDAQ:GOOGL) stock increased significantly by 14% 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. Specifically, we decided to study Alphabet's 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 short, ROE shows the profit each dollar generates with respect to its shareholder investments.
Check out our latest analysis for Alphabet
How To 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 Alphabet is:
23% = US$60b ÷ US$256b (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2022).
The 'return' refers to a company's earnings over the last year. That means that for every $1 worth of shareholders' equity, the company generated $0.23 in profit.
What Has ROE Got To Do With Earnings Growth?
Thus far, we have learned that ROE measures how efficiently a company is generating its profits. 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.
Alphabet's Earnings Growth And 23% ROE
To begin with, Alphabet has a pretty high ROE which is interesting. Second, a comparison with the average ROE reported by the industry of 8.8% also doesn't go unnoticed by us. So, the substantial 29% net income growth seen by Alphabet over the past five years isn't overly surprising.
As a next step, we compared Alphabet's net income growth with the industry, and pleasingly, we found that the growth seen by the company is higher than the average industry growth of 16%.
Earnings growth is an important metric to consider when valuing a stock. The investor should try to establish if the expected growth or decline in earnings, whichever the case may be, is priced in. By doing so, they will have an idea if the stock is headed into clear blue waters or if swampy waters await. Has the market priced in the future outlook for GOOGL? You can find out in our latest intrinsic value infographic research report.
Is Alphabet Using Its Retained Earnings Effectively?
Given that Alphabet doesn't pay any dividend to its shareholders, we infer that the company has been reinvesting all of its profits to grow its business.
Summary
Overall, we are quite pleased with Alphabet's performance. Particularly, we like that the company is reinvesting heavily into its business, and at a high rate of return. Unsurprisingly, this has led to an impressive earnings growth. That being so, a study of the latest analyst forecasts show that the company is expected to see a slowdown in its future earnings growth. 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.
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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.
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