Forward Air (NASDAQ:FWRD) has had a rough three months with its share price down 9.9%. However, stock prices are usually driven by a company’s financial performance over the long term, which in this case looks quite promising. Particularly, we will be paying attention to Forward Air's ROE today.

Return on Equity or ROE is a test of how effectively a company is growing its value and managing investors’ money. In short, ROE shows the profit each dollar generates with respect to its shareholder investments.

See our latest analysis for Forward Air

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 Forward Air is:

14% = US$80m ÷ US$550m (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2021).

The 'return' is the yearly profit. Another way to think of that is that for every $1 worth of equity, the company was able to earn $0.14 in profit.

What Has ROE Got To Do With 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. 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.

Forward Air's Earnings Growth And 14% ROE

At first glance, Forward Air seems to have a decent ROE. Even when compared to the industry average of 15% the company's ROE looks quite decent. This probably goes some way in explaining Forward Air's moderate 7.5% growth over the past five years amongst other factors.

As a next step, we compared Forward Air'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 7.5% 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. Doing so will help them establish if the stock's future looks promising or ominous. What is FWRD worth today? The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether FWRD is currently mispriced by the market.

Is Forward Air Making Efficient Use Of Its Profits?

In Forward Air's case, its respectable earnings growth can probably be explained by its low three-year median payout ratio of 25% (or a retention ratio of 75%), which suggests that the company is investing most of its profits to grow its business.

Additionally, Forward Air 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.

Conclusion

Overall, we are quite pleased with Forward Air's performance. Specifically, we like that the company is reinvesting a huge chunk of its profits at a high rate of return. This of course has caused the company to see substantial growth in its earnings. 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.

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.

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