Yahoo Finance Signet Jewelers Limited (NYSE:SIG) Stock Has Shown Weakness Lately But Financials Look Strong: Should Prospective Shareholders Make The Leap?
It is hard to get excited after looking at Signet Jewelers' (NYSE:SIG) recent performance, when its stock has declined 17% over the past three months. However, stock prices are usually driven by a company’s financial performance over the long term, which in this case looks quite promising. Specifically, we decided to study Signet Jewelers' ROE in this article.
ROE or return on equity is a useful tool to assess how effectively a company can generate returns on the investment it received from its shareholders. Put another way, it reveals the company's success at turning shareholder investments into profits.
See our latest analysis for Signet Jewelers
How Do You Calculate Return On Equity?
Return on equity 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 Signet Jewelers is:
17% = US$377m ÷ US$2.2b (Based on the trailing twelve months to January 2023).
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 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. 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.
A Side By Side comparison of Signet Jewelers' Earnings Growth And 17% ROE
At first glance, Signet Jewelers seems to have a decent ROE. Further, the company's ROE is similar to the industry average of 21%. Consequently, this likely laid the ground for the impressive net income growth of 49% seen over the past five years by Signet Jewelers. However, there could also be other drivers 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 Signet Jewelers' 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 25%.
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. One good indicator of expected earnings growth is the P/E ratio which determines the price the market is willing to pay for a stock based on its earnings prospects. So, you may want to check if Signet Jewelers is trading on a high P/E or a low P/E, relative to its industry.
Is Signet Jewelers Using Its Retained Earnings Effectively?
Signet Jewelers' three-year median payout ratio to shareholders is 3.9%, which is quite low. This implies that the company is retaining 96% of its profits. So it looks like Signet Jewelers is reinvesting profits heavily to grow its business, which shows in its earnings growth.
Additionally, Signet Jewelers 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 9.3% over the next three years. Regardless, the future ROE for Signet Jewelers is speculated to rise to 25% despite the anticipated increase in the payout ratio. There could probably be other factors that could be driving the future growth in the ROE.
Conclusion
On the whole, we feel that Signet Jewelers' 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. With that said, the latest industry analyst forecasts reveal that the company's earnings growth is expected to slow down. 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.
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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.
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