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Is Expeditors International of Washington, Inc.'s (NASDAQ:EXPD) Recent Performance Tethered To Its Attractive Financial Prospects?

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Expeditors International of Washington's (NASDAQ:EXPD) stock up by 9.9% over the past three months. Since the market usually pay for a company’s long-term financial health, we decided to study the company’s fundamentals to see if they could be influencing the market. In this article, we decided to focus on Expeditors International of Washington'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. Put another way, it reveals the company's success at turning shareholder investments into profits.

Check out our latest analysis for Expeditors International of Washington

How To Calculate Return On Equity?

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 Expeditors International of Washington is:

28% = US$575m ÷ US$2.0b (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2020).

The 'return' is the profit over the last twelve months. So, this means that for every $1 of its shareholder's investments, the company generates a profit of $0.28.

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. 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. Assuming everything else remains unchanged, the higher the ROE and profit retention, the higher the growth rate of a company compared to companies that don't necessarily bear these characteristics.

Expeditors International of Washington's Earnings Growth And 28% ROE

Firstly, we acknowledge that Expeditors International of Washington has a significantly high ROE. Additionally, the company's ROE is higher compared to the industry average of 14% which is quite remarkable. Probably as a result of this, Expeditors International of Washington was able to see a decent net income growth of 9.5% over the last five years.

Next, on comparing with the industry net income growth, we found that Expeditors International of Washington's reported growth was lower than the industry growth of 16% in the same period, which is not something we like to see.

past-earnings-growth
past-earnings-growth

Earnings growth is an important metric to consider when valuing a stock. It’s important for an investor to know whether the market has priced in the company's expected earnings growth (or decline). By doing so, they will have an idea if the stock is headed into clear blue waters or if swampy waters await. Is EXPD fairly valued? This infographic on the company's intrinsic value has everything you need to know.

Is Expeditors International of Washington Making Efficient Use Of Its Profits?

With a three-year median payout ratio of 28% (implying that the company retains 72% of its profits), it seems that Expeditors International of Washington is reinvesting efficiently in a way that it sees respectable amount growth in its earnings and pays a dividend that's well covered.

Moreover, Expeditors International of Washington is determined to keep sharing its profits with shareholders which we infer from its long history of paying a dividend for at least ten years. Upon studying the latest analysts' consensus data, we found that the company is expected to keep paying out approximately 28% of its profits over the next three years. Therefore, the company's future ROE is also not expected to change by much with analysts predicting an ROE of 29%.

Conclusion

Overall, we are quite pleased with Expeditors International of Washington's performance. In particular, it's great to see that the company is investing heavily into its business and along with a high rate of return, that has resulted in a respectable growth in its earnings. We also studied the latest analyst forecasts and found that the company's earnings growth is expected be similar to its current growth rate. 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. 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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