Raytheon Technologies Corporation's (NYSE:RTX) Stock Is Rallying But Financials Look Ambiguous: Will The Momentum Continue?
Most readers would already be aware that Raytheon Technologies’ (NYSE:RTX) stock increased significantly by 7.7% over the past month. However, we wonder if the company’s inconsistent financials would have any adverse impact on the current share price momentum. Particularly, we will be paying attention to Raytheon Technologies’ ROE today.
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.
View our latest analysis for Raytheon Technologies
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 Raytheon Technologies is:
0.9% = US$631m ÷ US$69b (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2020).
The ‘return’ is the amount earned after tax over the last twelve months. So, this means that for every $1 of its shareholder’s investments, the company generates a profit of $0.01.
Why Is ROE Important For Earnings Growth?
We have already established that ROE serves as an efficient profit-generating gauge for a company’s future earnings. 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.
A Side By Side comparison of Raytheon Technologies’ Earnings Growth And 0.9% ROE
As you can see, Raytheon Technologies’ ROE looks pretty weak. Even when compared to the industry average of 11%, the ROE figure is pretty disappointing. Therefore, it might not be wrong to say that the five year net income decline of 5.0% seen by Raytheon Technologies was possibly a result of it having a lower ROE. We reckon that there could also be other factors at play here. Such as – low earnings retention or poor allocation of capital.
That being said, we compared Raytheon Technologies’ performance with the industry and were concerned when we found that while the company has shrunk its earnings, the industry has grown its earnings at a rate of 17% 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. Doing so will help them establish if the stock’s future looks promising or ominous. Has the market priced in the future outlook for RTX? You can find out in our latest intrinsic value infographic research report.
Is Raytheon Technologies Using Its Retained Earnings Effectively?
Looking at its three-year median payout ratio of 47% (or a retention ratio of 53%) which is pretty normal, Raytheon Technologies’ declining earnings is rather baffling as one would expect to see a fair bit of growth when a company is retaining a good portion of its profits. It looks like there might be some other reasons to explain the lack in that respect. For example, the business could be in decline.
Additionally, Raytheon Technologies has paid dividends over a period of at least ten years, which means that the company’s management is determined to pay dividends even if it means little to no earnings growth. Upon studying the latest analysts’ consensus data, we found that the company is expected to keep paying out approximately 41% of its profits over the next three years. However, Raytheon Technologies’ ROE is predicted to rise to 8.3% despite there being no anticipated change in its payout ratio.
Conclusion
Overall, we have mixed feelings about Raytheon Technologies. While the company does have a high rate of profit retention, its low rate of return is probably hampering its earnings growth. Having said that, looking at current analyst estimates, we found that the company’s earnings growth rate is expected to see a huge improvement. To know more about the latest analysts predictions for the company, check out this visualization of analyst forecasts for the company.
This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. 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.
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