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Is First Industrial Realty Trust, Inc.'s (NYSE:FR) Stock's Recent Performance A Reflection Of Its Financial Health?

First Industrial Realty Trust's (NYSE:FR) stock is up by 7.2% over the past three months. 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 First Industrial Realty Trust'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 simpler terms, it measures the profitability of a company in relation to shareholder's equity.

See our latest analysis for First Industrial Realty Trust

How Is ROE Calculated?

The formula for return on equity is:

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Return on Equity = Net Profit (from continuing operations) ÷ Shareholders' Equity

So, based on the above formula, the ROE for First Industrial Realty Trust is:

17% = US$415m ÷ US$2.5b (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2022).

The 'return' is the profit over the last twelve months. So, this means that for every $1 of its shareholder's investments, the company generates a profit of $0.17.

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.

First Industrial Realty Trust's Earnings Growth And 17% ROE

At first glance, First Industrial Realty Trust seems to have a decent ROE. On comparing with the average industry ROE of 6.9% the company's ROE looks pretty remarkable. This probably laid the ground for First Industrial Realty Trust's moderate 12% net income growth seen over the past five years.

We then performed a comparison between First Industrial Realty Trust's net income growth with the industry, which revealed that the company's growth is similar to the average industry growth of 12% in the same period.

past-earnings-growth
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). This then helps them determine if the stock is placed for a bright or bleak future. What is FR worth today? The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether FR is currently mispriced by the market.

Is First Industrial Realty Trust Making Efficient Use Of Its Profits?

First Industrial Realty Trust has a high three-year median payout ratio of 53%. This means that it has only 47% of its income left to reinvest into its business. However, it's not unusual to see a REIT with such a high payout ratio mainly due to statutory requirements. Despite this, the company's earnings grew moderately as we saw above.

Additionally, First Industrial Realty Trust 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. Upon studying the latest analysts' consensus data, we found that the company's future payout ratio is expected to rise to 100% over the next three years. Therefore, the expected rise in the payout ratio explains why the company's ROE is expected to decline to 7.0% over the same period.

Conclusion

On the whole, we feel that First Industrial Realty Trust's performance has been quite good. Especially the high ROE, Which has contributed to the impressive growth seen in earnings. Despite the company reinvesting only a small portion of its profits, it still has managed to grow its earnings so that is appreciable. With that said, on studying the latest analyst forecasts, we found that while the company has seen growth in its past earnings, analysts expect its future earnings to shrink. To know more about the latest analysts predictions for the company, check out this visualization of analyst forecasts for the company.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.

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.

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