Church & Dwight Co., Inc.'s (NYSE:CHD) Stock Been Rising: Are Strong Financials Guiding The Market?

Church & Dwight's (NYSE:CHD) stock up by 1.7% over the past week. 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 Church & Dwight'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. Simply put, it is used to assess the profitability of a company in relation to its equity capital.

Check out our latest analysis for Church & Dwight

How Do You 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 Church & Dwight is:

24% = US$777m ÷ US$3.2b (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 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 $0.24 in profit.

What Is The Relationship Between ROE And Earnings Growth?

We have already established that ROE serves as an efficient profit-generating gauge for a company's future earnings. 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. 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.

A Side By Side comparison of Church & Dwight's Earnings Growth And 24% ROE

Firstly, we acknowledge that Church & Dwight has a significantly high ROE. Even when compared to the industry average of 24% the company's ROE is pretty decent. So, Church & Dwight's moderate 11% growth over the past five years was probably backed by the high ROE.

Next, on comparing Church & Dwight's net income growth with the industry, we found that the company's reported growth is similar to the industry average growth rate of 11% in the same period.

past-earnings-growth

The basis for attaching value to a company is, to a great extent, tied to its earnings growth. It’s important for an investor to know whether the market has priced in the company's expected earnings growth (or decline). Doing so will help them establish if the stock's future looks promising or ominous. What is CHD worth today? The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether CHD is currently mispriced by the market.

Is Church & Dwight Using Its Retained Earnings Effectively?

Church & Dwight has a healthy combination of a moderate three-year median payout ratio of 32% (or a retention ratio of 68%) and a respectable amount of growth in earnings as we saw above, meaning that the company has been making efficient use of its profits.

Additionally, Church & Dwight has paid dividends over a period of at least ten years which means that the company is pretty serious about sharing its profits with shareholders. Our latest analyst data shows that the future payout ratio of the company over the next three years is expected to be approximately 32%. Accordingly, forecasts suggest that Church & Dwight's future ROE will be 24% which is again, similar to the current ROE.

Summary

On the whole, we feel that Church & Dwight's performance has been quite good. 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. 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. To know more about the company's future earnings growth forecasts take a look at this free report on analyst forecasts for the company to find out more.

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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