Yahoo Finance Should You Expect Standard Life Investments Property Income Trust Limited (LON:SLI) To Continue Delivering An ROE Of 11.2%?
I am writing today to help inform people who are new to the stock market and want to learn about Return on Equity using a real-life example.
Standard Life Investments Property Income Trust Limited (LON:SLI) delivered an ROE of 11.2% over the past 12 months, which is an impressive feat relative to its industry average of 9.7% during the same period. Superficially, this looks great since we know that SLI has generated big profits with little equity capital; however, ROE doesn’t tell us how much SLI has borrowed in debt. In this article, we’ll closely examine some factors like financial leverage to evaluate the sustainability of SLI’s ROE.
View our latest analysis for Standard Life Investments Property Income Trust
Breaking down ROE — the mother of all ratios
Firstly, Return on Equity, or ROE, is simply the percentage of last years’ earning against the book value of shareholders’ equity. It essentially shows how much the company can generate in earnings given the amount of equity it has raised. Generally speaking, a higher ROE is preferred; however, there are other factors we must also consider before making any conclusions.
Return on Equity = Net Profit ÷ Shareholders Equity
ROE is assessed against cost of equity, which is measured using the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) – but let’s not dive into the details of that today. For now, let’s just look at the cost of equity number for Standard Life Investments Property Income Trust, which is 8.3%. This means Standard Life Investments Property Income Trust returns enough to cover its own cost of equity, with a buffer of 2.9%. This sustainable practice implies that the company pays less for its capital than what it generates in return. ROE can be dissected into three distinct ratios: net profit margin, asset turnover, and financial leverage. This is called the Dupont Formula:
Dupont Formula
ROE = profit margin × asset turnover × financial leverage
ROE = (annual net profit ÷ sales) × (sales ÷ assets) × (assets ÷ shareholders’ equity)
ROE = annual net profit ÷ shareholders’ equity
Basically, profit margin measures how much of revenue trickles down into earnings which illustrates how efficient the business is with its cost management. Asset turnover reveals how much revenue can be generated from Standard Life Investments Property Income Trust’s asset base. The most interesting ratio, and reflective of sustainability of its ROE, is financial leverage. Since ROE can be inflated by excessive debt, we need to examine Standard Life Investments Property Income Trust’s debt-to-equity level. Currently the debt-to-equity ratio stands at a low 30.2%, which means its above-average ROE is driven by its ability to grow its profit without a significant debt burden.
Next Steps:
ROE is one of many ratios which meaningfully dissects financial statements, which illustrates the quality of a company. Standard Life Investments Property Income Trust exhibits a strong ROE against its peers, as well as sufficient returns to cover its cost of equity. Its high ROE is not likely to be driven by high debt. Therefore, investors may have more confidence in the sustainability of this level of returns going forward. Although ROE can be a useful metric, it is only a small part of diligent research.
For Standard Life Investments Property Income Trust, I’ve put together three pertinent aspects you should further research:
Financial Health: Does it have a healthy balance sheet? Take a look at our free balance sheet analysis with six simple checks on key factors like leverage and risk.
Valuation: What is Standard Life Investments Property Income Trust worth today? Is the stock undervalued, even when its growth outlook is factored into its intrinsic value? The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether Standard Life Investments Property Income Trust is currently mispriced by the market.
Other High-Growth Alternatives : Are there other high-growth stocks you could be holding instead of Standard Life Investments Property Income Trust? Explore our interactive list of stocks with large growth potential to get an idea of what else is out there you may be missing!
To help readers see past the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements.
The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned. For errors that warrant correction please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com.
