Yahoo Finance Watts Water Technologies, Inc.'s (NYSE:WTS) Recent Stock Performance Looks Decent- Can Strong Fundamentals Be the Reason?
Watts Water Technologies' (NYSE:WTS) stock is up by 7.1% over the past three months. Given its impressive performance, we decided to study the company's key financial indicators as a company's long-term fundamentals usually dictate market outcomes. Particularly, we will be paying attention to Watts Water Technologies' ROE today.
Return on equity or ROE is an important factor to be considered by a shareholder because it tells them how effectively their capital is being reinvested. Simply put, it is used to assess the profitability of a company in relation to its equity capital.
See our latest analysis for Watts Water Technologies
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 Watts Water Technologies is:
13% = US$155m ÷ US$1.2b (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2021).
The 'return' is the amount earned after tax over the last twelve months. Another way to think of that is that for every $1 worth of equity, the company was able to earn $0.13 in profit.
Why Is ROE Important For Earnings Growth?
Thus far, we have learned that ROE measures how efficiently a company is generating its profits. Depending on how much of these profits the company reinvests or "retains", and how effectively it does so, we are then able to assess a company’s earnings growth potential. 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.
Watts Water Technologies' Earnings Growth And 13% ROE
To begin with, Watts Water Technologies seems to have a respectable ROE. Especially when compared to the industry average of 10% the company's ROE looks pretty impressive. Probably as a result of this, Watts Water Technologies was able to see a decent growth of 18% over the last five years.
As a next step, we compared Watts Water Technologies' 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 8.5%.
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. This then helps them determine if the stock is placed for a bright or bleak future. Is Watts Water Technologies fairly valued compared to other companies? These 3 valuation measures might help you decide.
Is Watts Water Technologies Using Its Retained Earnings Effectively?
Watts Water Technologies has a low three-year median payout ratio of 23%, meaning that the company retains the remaining 77% of its profits. This suggests that the management is reinvesting most of the profits to grow the business.
Moreover, Watts Water Technologies is determined to keep sharing its profits with shareholders which we infer from its long history of paying a dividend for at least ten years. Upon studying the latest analysts' consensus data, we found that the company's future payout ratio is expected to drop to 16% over the next three years.
Summary
In total, we are pretty happy with Watts Water Technologies' 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, the company's earnings growth is expected to slow down, as forecasted in the current analyst estimates. 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.
