Yahoo Finance Is Weakness In General Dynamics Corporation (NYSE:GD) Stock A Sign That The Market Could be Wrong Given Its Strong Financial Prospects?
It is hard to get excited after looking at General Dynamics' (NYSE:GD) recent performance, when its stock has declined 9.0% 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 General Dynamics' ROE in this article.
Return on Equity or ROE is a test of how effectively a company is growing its value and managing investors’ money. In short, ROE shows the profit each dollar generates with respect to its shareholder investments.
See our latest analysis for General Dynamics
How To 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 General Dynamics is:
18% = US$3.3b ÷ US$18b (Based on the trailing twelve months to April 2022).
The 'return' is the yearly profit. So, this means that for every $1 of its shareholder's investments, the company generates a profit of $0.18.
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. Based on how much of its profits the company chooses to reinvest or "retain", we are then able to evaluate a company's future ability to generate profits. 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.
General Dynamics' Earnings Growth And 18% ROE
At first glance, General Dynamics seems to have a decent ROE. Further, the company's ROE compares quite favorably to the industry average of 10%. Yet, General Dynamics has posted measly growth of 2.9% over the past five years. This is interesting as the high returns should mean that the company has the ability to generate high growth but for some reason, it hasn't been able to do so. A few likely reasons why this could happen is that the company could have a high payout ratio or the business has allocated capital poorly, for instance.
We then performed a comparison between General Dynamics' net income growth with the industry, which revealed that the company's growth is similar to the average industry growth of 2.9% in the same period.
Earnings growth is an important metric to consider when valuing a stock. What investors need to determine next is if the expected earnings growth, or the lack of it, is already built into the share price. Doing so will help them establish if the stock's future looks promising or ominous. Has the market priced in the future outlook for GD? You can find out in our latest intrinsic value infographic research report.
Is General Dynamics Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?
Despite having a normal three-year median payout ratio of 39% (or a retention ratio of 61% over the past three years, General Dynamics has seen very little growth in earnings as we saw above. Therefore, there might be some other reasons to explain the lack in that respect. For example, the business could be in decline.
Moreover, General Dynamics has been paying dividends for at least ten years or more suggesting that management must have perceived that the shareholders prefer dividends over earnings growth. Upon studying the latest analysts' consensus data, we found that the company is expected to keep paying out approximately 38% of its profits over the next three years. As a result, General Dynamics' ROE is not expected to change by much either, which we inferred from the analyst estimate of 22% for future ROE.
Conclusion
On the whole, we feel that General Dynamics' performance has been quite good. Specifically, we like that the company is reinvesting a huge chunk of its profits at a high rate of return. This of course has caused the company to see a good amount of growth in its earnings. With that said, the latest industry analyst forecasts reveal that the company's earnings are expected to accelerate. Are these analysts expectations based on the broad expectations for the industry, or on the company's fundamentals? Click here to be taken to our analyst's forecasts page 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.
