Many investors are still learning about the various metrics that can be useful when analysing a stock. This article is for those who would like to learn about Return On Equity (ROE). We’ll use ROE to examine Pinnacle Food Group Limited (NASDAQ:PFAI), by way of a worked example.
Return on Equity or ROE is a test of how effectively a company is growing its value and managing investors’ money. Put another way, it reveals the company’s success at turning shareholder investments into profits.
Return on Equity = Net Profit (from continuing operations) ÷ Shareholders’ Equity
So, based on the above formula, the ROE for Pinnacle Food Group is:
53% = US$655k ÷ US$1.2m (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2024).
The ‘return’ is the income the business earned over the last year. So, this means that for every $1 of its shareholder’s investments, the company generates a profit of $0.53.
Check out our latest analysis for Pinnacle Food Group
By comparing a company’s ROE with its industry average, we can get a quick measure of how good it is. Importantly, this is far from a perfect measure, because companies differ significantly within the same industry classification. Pleasingly, Pinnacle Food Group has a superior ROE than the average (14%) in the Machinery industry.
That’s clearly a positive. With that said, a high ROE doesn’t always indicate high profitability. Especially when a firm uses high levels of debt to finance its debt which may boost its ROE but the high leverage puts the company at risk. Our risks dashboardshould have the 4 risks we have identified for Pinnacle Food Group.
Companies usually need to invest money to grow their profits. That cash can come from retained earnings, issuing new shares (equity), or debt. In the first two cases, the ROE will capture this use of capital to grow. In the latter case, the debt used for growth will improve returns, but won’t affect the total equity. In this manner the use of debt will boost ROE, even though the core economics of the business stay the same.
Although Pinnacle Food Group does use debt, its debt to equity ratio of 0.45 is still low. When I see a high ROE, fuelled by only modest debt, I suspect the business is high quality. Conservative use of debt to boost returns is usually a good move for shareholders, though it does leave the company more exposed to interest rate rises.