With its stock down 11% over the past three months, it is easy to disregard Reynolds Consumer Products (NASDAQ:REYN). But if you pay close attention, you might find that its key financial indicators look quite decent, which could mean that the stock could potentially rise in the long-term given how markets usually reward more resilient long-term fundamentals. In this article, we decided to focus on Reynolds Consumer Products' 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 other words, it is a profitability ratio which measures the rate of return on the capital provided by the company's shareholders.

See our latest analysis for Reynolds Consumer Products

How To Calculate Return On Equity?

ROE 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 Reynolds Consumer Products is:

16% = US$352m ÷ US$2.1b (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2024).

The 'return' is the profit over the last twelve months. One way to conceptualize this is that for each $1 of shareholders' capital it has, the company made $0.16 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. 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. 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.

Reynolds Consumer Products' Earnings Growth And 16% ROE

At first glance, Reynolds Consumer Products seems to have a decent ROE. And on comparing with the industry, we found that the the average industry ROE is similar at 18%. Given the circumstances, we can't help but wonder why Reynolds Consumer Products saw little to no growth in the past five years. We reckon that there could be some other factors at play here that's limiting the company's growth. These include low earnings retention or poor allocation of capital.

As a next step, we compared Reynolds Consumer Products' net income growth with the industry and were disappointed to see that the company's growth is lower than the industry average growth of 2.4% in the same period.

Earnings growth is a huge factor in stock valuation. 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. Is Reynolds Consumer Products fairly valued compared to other companies? These 3 valuation measures might help you decide.

Is Reynolds Consumer Products Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?

The high three-year median payout ratio of 65% (meaning, the company retains only 35% of profits) for Reynolds Consumer Products suggests that the company's earnings growth was miniscule as a result of paying out a majority of its earnings.

In addition, Reynolds Consumer Products has been paying dividends over a period of five years suggesting that keeping up dividend payments is way more important to the management even if it comes at the cost of business growth. Our latest analyst data shows that the future payout ratio of the company over the next three years is expected to be approximately 53%. Therefore, the company's future ROE is also not expected to change by much with analysts predicting an ROE of 15%.

Conclusion

On the whole, we do feel that Reynolds Consumer Products has some positive attributes. Although, we are disappointed to see a lack of growth in earnings even in spite of a high ROE. Bear in mind, the company reinvests a small portion of its profits, which means that investors aren't reaping the benefits of the high rate of return. 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.