Yahoo Finance Is The Hackett Group, Inc.'s (NASDAQ:HCKT) Latest Stock Performance Being Led By Its Strong Fundamentals?
Hackett Group's (NASDAQ:HCKT) stock up by 4.4% over the past month. Since the market usually pay for a company’s long-term financial health, we decided to study the company’s fundamentals to see if they could be influencing the market. In this article, we decided to focus on Hackett Group's ROE.
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.
View our latest analysis for Hackett Group
How Is ROE Calculated?
The formula for return on equity is:
Return on Equity = Net Profit (from continuing operations) ÷ Shareholders' Equity
So, based on the above formula, the ROE for Hackett Group is:
15% = US$22m ÷ US$141m (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2020).
The 'return' refers to a company's earnings over the last year. So, this means that for every $1 of its shareholder's investments, the company generates a profit of $0.15.
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. 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.
Hackett Group's Earnings Growth And 15% ROE
To start with, Hackett Group's ROE looks acceptable. Even when compared to the industry average of 17% the company's ROE looks quite decent. This certainly adds some context to Hackett Group's moderate 13% net income growth seen over the past five years.
Next, on comparing with the industry net income growth, we found that Hackett Group's growth is quite high when compared to the industry average growth of 9.5% in the same period, which is great to see.
The basis for attaching value to a company is, to a great extent, tied to its earnings growth. The investor should try to establish if the expected growth or decline in earnings, whichever the case may be, is priced in. This then helps them determine if the stock is placed for a bright or bleak future. Is Hackett Group fairly valued compared to other companies? These 3 valuation measures might help you decide.
Is Hackett Group Using Its Retained Earnings Effectively?
With a three-year median payout ratio of 35% (implying that the company retains 65% of its profits), it seems that Hackett Group is reinvesting efficiently in a way that it sees respectable amount growth in its earnings and pays a dividend that's well covered.
Moreover, Hackett Group is determined to keep sharing its profits with shareholders which we infer from its long history of eight years of paying a dividend.
Conclusion
In total, we are pretty happy with Hackett Group's performance. In particular, it's great to see that the company is investing heavily into its business and along with a high rate of return, that has resulted in a sizeable growth in its earnings. Having said that, looking at the current analyst estimates, we found that the company's earnings are expected to gain momentum. 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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