Yahoo Finance Declining Stock and Decent Financials: Is The Market Wrong About Alaska Air Group, Inc. (NYSE:ALK)?
It is hard to get excited after looking at Alaska Air Group's (NYSE:ALK) recent performance, when its stock has declined 25% over the past month. However, the company's fundamentals look pretty decent, and long-term financials are usually aligned with future market price movements. In this article, we decided to focus on Alaska Air Group's ROE.
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. In other words, it is a profitability ratio which measures the rate of return on the capital provided by the company's shareholders.
See our latest analysis for Alaska Air Group
How To Calculate Return On Equity?
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 Alaska Air Group is:
13% = US$533m ÷ US$4.0b (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2020).
The 'return' is the amount earned after tax over the last twelve months. So, this means that for every $1 of its shareholder's investments, the company generates a profit of $0.13.
What Is The Relationship Between ROE And Earnings Growth?
Thus far, we have learnt 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 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.
Alaska Air Group's Earnings Growth And 13% ROE
To begin with, Alaska Air Group seems to have a respectable ROE. Further, the company's ROE is similar to the industry average of 12%. As you might expect, the 7.2% net income decline reported by Alaska Air Group is a bit of a surprise. So, there might be some other aspects that could explain this. These include low earnings retention or poor allocation of capital.
That being said, we compared Alaska Air Group's performance with the industry and were concerned when we found that while the company has shrunk its earnings, the industry has grown its earnings at a rate of 5.6% in the same period.
Earnings growth is a huge factor in stock valuation. 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. If you're wondering about Alaska Air Group's's valuation, check out this gauge of its price-to-earnings ratio, as compared to its industry.
Is Alaska Air Group Using Its Retained Earnings Effectively?
When we piece together Alaska Air Group's low three-year median payout ratio of 21% (where it is retaining 79% of its profits), calculated for the last three-year period, we are puzzled by the lack of growth. The low payout should mean that the company is retaining most of its earnings and consequently, should see some growth. It looks like there might be some other reasons to explain the lack in that respect. For example, the business could be in decline.
Existing analyst estimates suggest that the company's future payout ratio is expected to drop to 8.6% over the next three years. However, the company's ROE is not expected to change by much despite the lower expected payout ratio.
Summary
On the whole, we do feel that Alaska Air Group has some positive attributes. Although, we are disappointed to see a lack of growth in earnings even in spite of a high ROE and and a high reinvestment rate. We believe that there might be some outside factors that could be having a negative impact on the business. With that said, we studied the latest analyst forecasts and found that while the company has shrunk its earnings in the past, analysts expect its earnings to grow in the future. To know more about the latest analysts predictions for the company, check out this visualization of analyst forecasts 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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