Most readers would already know that Landstar System's (NASDAQ:LSTR) stock increased by 1.1% over the past three months. Given its impressive performance, we decided to study the company's key financial indicators as a company's long-term fundamentals usually dictate market outcomes. Particularly, we will be paying attention to Landstar System'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.

Check out our latest analysis for Landstar System

How Is ROE Calculated?

The formula for return on equity is:

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

So, based on the above formula, the ROE for Landstar System is:

27% = US$264m ÷ US$984m (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2023).

The 'return' is the yearly profit. One way to conceptualize this is that for each $1 of shareholders' capital it has, the company made $0.27 in profit.

Why Is ROE Important For Earnings Growth?

So far, we've learned that ROE is a measure of a company's profitability. Depending on how much of these profits the company reinvests or "retains", and how effectively it does so, we are then able to assess a company’s earnings growth potential. 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.

Landstar System's Earnings Growth And 27% ROE

First thing first, we like that Landstar System has an impressive ROE. Second, a comparison with the average ROE reported by the industry of 14% also doesn't go unnoticed by us. Probably as a result of this, Landstar System was able to see a decent net income growth of 12% over the last five years.

As a next step, we compared Landstar System'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 15% in the same period.

The basis for attaching value to a company is, to a great extent, tied to its earnings growth. 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. 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 Landstar System is trading on a high P/E or a low P/E, relative to its industry.

Is Landstar System Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?

Landstar System's three-year median payout ratio to shareholders is 10% (implying that it retains 90% of its income), which is on the lower side, so it seems like the management is reinvesting profits heavily to grow its business.

Besides, Landstar System has been paying dividends over a period of nine years. This shows that the company is committed to sharing profits with its shareholders. Looking at the current analyst consensus data, we can see that the company's future payout ratio is expected to rise to 14% over the next three years. However, the company's ROE is not expected to change by much despite the higher expected payout ratio.

Summary

In total, we are pretty happy with Landstar System's performance. Particularly, we like that the company is reinvesting heavily into its business, and at a high rate of return. As a result, the decent growth in its earnings is not surprising. That being so, a study of the latest analyst forecasts show that the company is expected to see a slowdown in its future earnings growth. To know more about the latest analysts predictions for the company, check out this visualization of analyst forecasts 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.