With its stock down 6.1% over the past month, it is easy to disregard Freightways Group (NZSE:FRW). However, stock prices are usually driven by a company’s financial performance over the long term, which in this case looks quite promising. In this article, we decided to focus on Freightways Group's 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.

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How Do You 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 Freightways Group is:

15% = NZ$75m ÷ NZ$504m (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2024).

The 'return' is the yearly profit. That means that for every NZ$1 worth of shareholders' equity, the company generated NZ$0.15 in profit.

View our latest analysis for Freightways Group

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. 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.

Freightways Group's Earnings Growth And 15% ROE

To start with, Freightways Group's ROE looks acceptable. Especially when compared to the industry average of 11% the company's ROE looks pretty impressive. This probably laid the ground for Freightways Group's moderate 9.9% net income growth seen over the past five years.

As a next step, we compared Freightways Group's net income growth with the industry and found that the company has a similar growth figure when compared with the industry average growth rate of 12% in the same period.

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. This then helps them determine if the stock is placed for a bright or bleak future. Is FRW fairly valued? This infographic on the company's intrinsic value has everything you need to know.

Is Freightways Group Using Its Retained Earnings Effectively?

While Freightways Group has a three-year median payout ratio of 87% (which means it retains 13% of profits), the company has still seen a fair bit of earnings growth in the past, meaning that its high payout ratio hasn't hampered its ability to grow.

Additionally, Freightways Group has paid dividends over a period of at least ten years which means that the company is pretty serious about sharing its profits with shareholders. Our latest analyst data shows that the future payout ratio of the company over the next three years is expected to be approximately 79%. Regardless, the future ROE for Freightways Group is predicted to rise to 21% despite there being not much change expected in its payout ratio.

Conclusion

In total, we are pretty happy with Freightways Group's performance. We are particularly impressed by the considerable earnings growth posted by the company, which was likely backed by its high ROE. While the company is paying out most of its earnings as dividends, it has been able to grow its earnings in spite of it, so that's probably a good sign. We also studied the latest analyst forecasts and found that the company's earnings growth is expected be similar to its current growth rate. 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.

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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.