Yahoo Finance Can Mixed Fundamentals Have A Negative Impact on Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV) Current Share Price Momentum?
Fortive (NYSE:FTV) has had a great run on the share market with its stock up by a significant 12% over the last three months. However, we wonder if the company's inconsistent financials would have any adverse impact on the current share price momentum. Specifically, we decided to study Fortive's ROE in this article.
Return on equity or ROE is a key measure used to assess how efficiently a company's management is utilizing the company's capital. In other words, it is a profitability ratio which measures the rate of return on the capital provided by the company's shareholders.
Check out our latest analysis for Fortive
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 Fortive is:
7.0% = US$668m ÷ US$9.6b (Based on the trailing twelve months to April 2022).
The 'return' is the amount earned after tax over the last twelve months. That means that for every $1 worth of shareholders' equity, the company generated $0.07 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. 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.
Fortive's Earnings Growth And 7.0% ROE
When you first look at it, Fortive's ROE doesn't look that attractive. A quick further study shows that the company's ROE doesn't compare favorably to the industry average of 12% either. As a result, Fortive reported a very low income growth of 2.4% over the past five years.
As a next step, we compared Fortive's net income growth with the industry and were disappointed to see that the company's growth is lower than the industry average growth of 8.8% 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. By doing so, they will have an idea if the stock is headed into clear blue waters or if swampy waters await. If you're wondering about Fortive's's valuation, check out this gauge of its price-to-earnings ratio, as compared to its industry.
Is Fortive Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?
Fortive has a low three-year median payout ratio of 10.0% (meaning, the company keeps the remaining 90% of profits) which means that the company is retaining more of its earnings. This should be reflected in its earnings growth number, but that's not the case. Therefore, there might be some other reasons to explain the lack in that respect. For example, the business could be in decline.
Additionally, Fortive has paid dividends over a period of six years, which means that the company's management is determined to pay dividends even if it means little to no earnings growth. Based on the latest analysts' estimates, we found that the company's future payout ratio over the next three years is expected to hold steady at 8.5%. Regardless, the future ROE for Fortive is predicted to rise to 12% despite there being not much change expected in its payout ratio.
Summary
On the whole, we feel that the performance shown by Fortive can be open to many interpretations. Even though it appears to be retaining most of its profits, given the low ROE, investors may not be benefitting from all that reinvestment after all. The low earnings growth suggests our theory correct. Having said that, looking at the current analyst estimates, we found that the company's earnings are expected to gain momentum. To know more about the latest analysts predictions for the company, check out this visualization of analyst forecasts 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.
