Yahoo Finance Is Lululemon Athletica Inc.'s (NASDAQ:LULU) Latest Stock Performance Being Led By Its Strong Fundamentals?
Most readers would already know that Lululemon Athletica's (NASDAQ:LULU) stock increased by 3.8% over the past month. Given that the market rewards strong financials in the long-term, we wonder if that is the case in this instance. In this article, we decided to focus on Lululemon Athletica's ROE.
Return on equity or ROE is a key measure used to assess how efficiently a company's management is utilizing the company's capital. In short, ROE shows the profit each dollar generates with respect to its shareholder investments.
View our latest analysis for Lululemon Athletica
How Do You Calculate Return On Equity?
Return on equity 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 Lululemon Athletica is:
23% = US$589m ÷ US$2.6b (Based on the trailing twelve months to January 2021).
The 'return' refers to a company's earnings over the last year. Another way to think of that is that for every $1 worth of equity, the company was able to earn $0.23 in profit.
Why Is ROE Important For Earnings Growth?
So far, we've learned that ROE is a measure of a company's profitability. 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 all else is equal, companies that have both a higher return on equity and higher profit retention are usually the ones that have a higher growth rate when compared to companies that don't have the same features.
A Side By Side comparison of Lululemon Athletica's Earnings Growth And 23% ROE
Firstly, we acknowledge that Lululemon Athletica has a significantly high ROE. Second, a comparison with the average ROE reported by the industry of 17% also doesn't go unnoticed by us. As a result, Lululemon Athletica's exceptional 20% net income growth seen over the past five years, doesn't come as a surprise.
As a next step, we compared Lululemon Athletica'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 1.4%.
Earnings growth is an important metric to consider when valuing a stock. What investors need to determine next is if the expected earnings growth, or the lack of it, is already built into the share price. Doing so will help them establish if the stock's future looks promising or ominous. Is Lululemon Athletica fairly valued compared to other companies? These 3 valuation measures might help you decide.
Is Lululemon Athletica Using Its Retained Earnings Effectively?
Conclusion
In total, we are pretty happy with Lululemon Athletica's performance. Specifically, we like that the company is reinvesting a huge chunk of its profits at a high rate of return. This of course has caused the company to see substantial growth in its earnings. We also studied the latest analyst forecasts and found that the company's earnings growth is expected be similar to its current growth rate. 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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