Are Robust Financials Driving The Recent Rally In FirstService Corporation's (TSE:FSV) Stock?
Simply Wall St · 09/15 10:50

FirstService (TSE:FSV) has had a great run on the share market with its stock up by a significant 12% over the last three months. Given that the market rewards strong financials in the long-term, we wonder if that is the case in this instance. In this article, we decided to focus on FirstService's ROE.

Return on equity or ROE is a key measure used to assess how efficiently a company's management is utilizing the company's capital. Simply put, it is used to assess the profitability of a company in relation to its equity capital.

See our latest analysis for FirstService

How Is ROE Calculated?

The formula for ROE is:

Return on Equity = Net Profit (from continuing operations) ÷ Shareholders' Equity

So, based on the above formula, the ROE for FirstService is:

13% = US$163m ÷ US$1.2b (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2023).

The 'return' is the income the business earned over the last year. Another way to think of that is that for every CA$1 worth of equity, the company was able to earn CA$0.13 in profit.

What Has ROE Got To Do With Earnings Growth?

So far, we've learned that ROE is a measure of a company's profitability. 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. 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.

A Side By Side comparison of FirstService's Earnings Growth And 13% ROE

To begin with, FirstService seems to have a respectable ROE. On comparing with the average industry ROE of 9.6% the company's ROE looks pretty remarkable. Probably as a result of this, FirstService was able to see an impressive net income growth of 36% over the last five years. We reckon that there could also be other factors at play here. For instance, the company has a low payout ratio or is being managed efficiently.

Next, on comparing with the industry net income growth, we found that FirstService's growth is quite high when compared to the industry average growth of 22% in the same period, which is great to see.

past-earnings-growth
TSX:FSV Past Earnings Growth September 15th 2023

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. By doing so, they will have an idea if the stock is headed into clear blue waters or if swampy waters await. What is FSV worth today? The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether FSV is currently mispriced by the market.

Is FirstService Using Its Retained Earnings Effectively?

FirstService's three-year median payout ratio is a pretty moderate 28%, meaning the company retains 72% of its income. By the looks of it, the dividend is well covered and FirstService is reinvesting its profits efficiently as evidenced by its exceptional growth which we discussed above.

Additionally, FirstService has paid dividends over a period of eight years which means that the company is pretty serious about sharing its profits with shareholders.

Conclusion

Overall, we are quite pleased with FirstService's performance. Particularly, we like that the company is reinvesting heavily into its business, and at a high rate of return. Unsurprisingly, this has led to an impressive earnings growth. 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.