With its stock down 9.9% over the past week, it is easy to disregard FLEX LNG (NYSE:FLNG). It is possible that the markets have ignored the company's differing financials and decided to lean-in to the negative sentiment. Long-term fundamentals are usually what drive market outcomes, so it's worth paying close attention. Particularly, we will be paying attention to FLEX LNG's ROE today.

Return on equity or ROE is a key measure used to assess how efficiently a company's management is utilizing the company's capital. In other words, it is a profitability ratio which measures the rate of return on the capital provided by the company's shareholders.

How Do You Calculate Return On Equity?

The formula for ROE is:

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

So, based on the above formula, the ROE for FLEX LNG is:

11% = US$92m ÷ US$802m (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2024).

The 'return' is the yearly profit. That means that for every $1 worth of shareholders' equity, the company generated $0.11 in profit.

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.

A Side By Side comparison of FLEX LNG's Earnings Growth And 11% ROE

To begin with, FLEX LNG seems to have a respectable ROE. Be that as it may, the company's ROE is still quite lower than the industry average of 15%. Still, we can see that FLEX LNG has seen a remarkable net income growth of 30% over the past five years. Therefore, there could be other causes behind this growth. Such as - high earnings retention or an efficient management in place. However, not to forget, the company does have a decent ROE to begin with, just that it is lower than the industry average. So this also does lend some color to the high earnings growth seen by the company.

As a next step, we compared FLEX LNG's net income growth with the industry and were disappointed to see that the company's growth is lower than the industry average growth of 41% in the same period.

Earnings growth is an important metric to consider when valuing a stock. The investor should try to establish if the expected growth or decline in earnings, whichever the case may be, is priced in. This then helps them determine if the stock is placed for a bright or bleak future. One good indicator of expected earnings growth is the P/E ratio which determines the price the market is willing to pay for a stock based on its earnings prospects. So, you may want to check if FLEX LNG is trading on a high P/E or a low P/E, relative to its industry.

Is FLEX LNG Making Efficient Use Of Its Profits?

The really high three-year median payout ratio of 108% for FLEX LNG suggests that the company is paying its shareholders more than what it is earning. In spite of this, the company was able to grow its earnings significantly, as we saw above. With that said, it could be worth keeping an eye on the high payout ratio as that's a huge risk. Our risks dashboard should have the 3 risks we have identified for FLEX LNG.

Moreover, FLEX LNG is determined to keep sharing its profits with shareholders which we infer from its long history of five years of paying a dividend. Our latest analyst data shows that the future payout ratio of the company is expected to rise to 137% over the next three years. However, FLEX LNG's future ROE is expected to rise to 18% despite the expected increase in the company's payout ratio. We infer that there could be other factors that could be driving the anticipated growth in the company's ROE.

Conclusion

On the whole, we feel that the performance shown by FLEX LNG can be open to many interpretations. Although the company has grown its earnings moderately as a result of its respectable ROE, yet, the business is retaining hardly any of its profits. This might have negative implications on the company's future growth prospects. Having said that, the company's earnings growth is expected to slow down, as forecasted in the current analyst estimates. 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.