It is hard to get excited after looking at THOR Industries' (NYSE:THO) recent performance, when its stock has declined 4.1% over the past week. However, stock prices are usually driven by a company’s financials over the long term, which in this case look pretty respectable. In this article, we decided to focus on THOR Industries' ROE.

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. In short, ROE shows the profit each dollar generates with respect to its shareholder investments.

View our latest analysis for THOR Industries

How Do You Calculate Return On Equity?

The formula for return on equity is:

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

So, based on the above formula, the ROE for THOR Industries is:

6.5% = US$265m ÷ US$4.1b (Based on the trailing twelve months to July 2024).

The 'return' refers to a company's earnings over the last year. So, this means that for every $1 of its shareholder's investments, the company generates a profit of $0.07.

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.

THOR Industries' Earnings Growth And 6.5% ROE

When you first look at it, THOR Industries' ROE doesn't look that attractive. Next, when compared to the average industry ROE of 15%, the company's ROE leaves us feeling even less enthusiastic. Although, we can see that THOR Industries saw a modest net income growth of 10% over the past five years. We reckon that there could be other factors at play here. Such as - high earnings retention or an efficient management in place.

As a next step, we compared THOR Industries' net income growth with the industry and were disappointed to see that the company's growth is lower than the industry average growth of 18% in the same period.

Earnings growth is an important metric to consider when valuing a stock. 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. What is THO worth today? The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether THO is currently mispriced by the market.

Is THOR Industries Making Efficient Use Of Its Profits?

In THOR Industries' case, its respectable earnings growth can probably be explained by its low three-year median payout ratio of 14% (or a retention ratio of 86%), which suggests that the company is investing most of its profits to grow its business.

Moreover, THOR Industries is determined to keep sharing its profits with shareholders which we infer from its long history of paying a dividend for at least ten years. Our latest analyst data shows that the future payout ratio of the company is expected to rise to 24% over the next three years. Still, forecasts suggest that THOR Industries' future ROE will rise to 10% even though the the company's payout ratio is expected to rise. We presume that there could some other characteristics of the business that could be driving the anticipated growth in the company's ROE.

Summary

Overall, we feel that THOR Industries certainly does have some positive factors to consider. Namely, its respectable earnings growth, which it achieved due to it retaining most of its profits. However, given the low ROE, investors may not be benefitting from all that reinvestment after all. That being so, the latest analyst forecasts show that the company will continue to see an expansion in its earnings. 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.