Yahoo Finance L3Harris Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:LHX) Stock's Been Sliding But Fundamentals Look Decent: Will The Market Correct The Share Price In The Future?
L3Harris Technologies (NYSE:LHX) has had a rough month with its share price down 4.5%. 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 L3Harris Technologies' ROE.
Return on Equity or ROE is a test of how effectively a company is growing its value and managing investors’ money. In other words, it is a profitability ratio which measures the rate of return on the capital provided by the company's shareholders.
View our latest analysis for L3Harris Technologies
How To 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 L3Harris Technologies is:
7.6% = US$1.6b ÷ US$21b (Based on the trailing twelve months to October 2020).
The 'return' is the profit over the last twelve months. One way to conceptualize this is that for each $1 of shareholders' capital it has, the company made $0.08 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. 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.
L3Harris Technologies' Earnings Growth And 7.6% ROE
On the face of it, L3Harris Technologies' ROE is not much to talk about. Next, when compared to the average industry ROE of 11%, the company's ROE leaves us feeling even less enthusiastic. In spite of this, L3Harris Technologies was able to grow its net income considerably, at a rate of 29% in the last five years. Therefore, there could be other reasons behind this growth. For example, it is possible that the company's management has made some good strategic decisions, or that the company has a low payout ratio.
As a next step, we compared L3Harris 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 17%.
The basis for attaching value to a company is, to a great extent, tied to its earnings growth. 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 LHX fairly valued? This infographic on the company's intrinsic value has everything you need to know.
Is L3Harris Technologies Making Efficient Use Of Its Profits?
L3Harris Technologies has a three-year median payout ratio of 39% (where it is retaining 61% of its income) which is not too low or not too high. By the looks of it, the dividend is well covered and L3Harris Technologies is reinvesting its profits efficiently as evidenced by its exceptional growth which we discussed above.
Additionally, L3Harris Technologies 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 drop to 30% over the next three years. The fact that the company's ROE is expected to rise to 13% over the same period is explained by the drop in the payout ratio.
Conclusion
In total, it does look like L3Harris Technologies has some positive aspects to its business. Even in spite of the low rate of return, the company has posted impressive earnings growth as a result of reinvesting heavily into its business. 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 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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