When your brand looks for new investors, those investors might perform a return on equity calculation to determine the true profitability of your business.
Similarly, when you decide whether you want to invest in an organization, you might need to know the return on equity (ROE) to tell whether the investment will be a wise decision.
If you’re not sure what return on equity means or how ROE works, read on. We’ll dive into the details of ROE so you know how to calculate this metric from start to finish.
Return on equity (ROE) is an important financial ratio to know to understand your cash flow. This financial metric is the net income of a company divided by current shareholders’ equity.
Shareholders’ equity is the equity or ownership of the company held by all its current shareholders. You can also think of shareholders’ equity as the totality of a company’s total assets listed on financial statements minus its debt.
Put another way, ROE tells you how profitable a corporation really is and how efficient it is in terms of generating profits, making it a key valuation metric. Because of this, it’s highly effective at determining whether a given corporation, like a new cannabis business, is worth the investment cash on your end or if it will be a liability. You can also use it to tell whether your business will attract stockholders if you want to expand or scale your enterprise and increase your company’s profitability.
In many cases, ROE is considered the same as the return on assets. A high return on equity means that a company’s management of its net assets is efficient and successful at generating income and spurring growth due to its equity financing.
In contrast, a low return on equity indicates that a company’s management team needs to be shaken up or something else needs to happen to turn things around.
ROE is used in financial modeling to examine the financial performance of a business. It tells you whether a company is performing well (high ROE) or poorly (low ROE) relative to its current shareholders’ equity and the broader state of its management team. However, it’s also important to remember that what constitutes a “good” ROE can vary from industry to industry and can’t be determined based simply on income statements.
For example, the utility company should have a ROE of 10% or less since it will generate a ton of net income or profit relative to its operational expenses. Meanwhile, a retail or technology firm with relatively small balance sheets should have a return on equity of 18% or more.
Generally, companies should try to target an ROE that is the same or a little above the average for their sector (which means that the company in question is doing a better job than its peers). If you aren’t sure whether your company’s return on equity is attractive, try to find the average ROE for your industry and then calculate your own company’s ROE.
If it’s the same or higher, your company could be an attractive investment. The reverse can be true if it’s a lower ROE.
Let’s break down how to calculate return on equity. ROE is always expressed as a percentage, and it can only be calculated if both the net income and equity are positive numbers.
Net income is always calculated before dividends are paid to common shareholders and after dividends are paid to preferred shareholders (plus any interest is paid to lenders). But what exactly is net income?
Net profit margins include all the income your company produces in addition to net expenses and taxes that your company generates in a given period, like a month or quarter. The average shareholders’ equity can be calculated by adding equity at the beginning of the same time period.
Now you grasp these terms, here’s the ROE formula:
Let’s take a look at an example with this formula in action.
Say that you run a company with an annual income of $1,500,000. You have an average shareholders’ equity of $10 million. So, plug those numbers into the formula, and you get:
Depending on the average ROE for your industry, this can be worse, the same, or a good return on equity compared to other companies in the same market arena.
You can and should use return on equity to determine whether your company is performing well, worse, or the same as similar companies in the same niche. However, you can also use ROE to determine if there are problems with your organization (and so can investors, for that matter).
For example, if a company has a massively higher ROE than other companies or stocks in the same industry, investors might look at that company a little more closely and wonder why the ROE is so large.
Is it really because the company has something its competitors don’t, or is there something shady going on behind the books?
A high ROE relative to competing companies’ return on equity could be due to a small equity account compared to the company’s net income — which translates to significantly higher risk despite the promising growth rate.
In general, you should use this profitability ratio to figure out how your company performs and whether you need to improve net income, improve shareholders’ equity, or improve another factor. Above all, you can use ROE to make your company a more attractive brand for investors or to decide whether you want to invest in another company.
Although return on equity is highly effective, there are some limitations. Remember, an extremely high ROE might not be positive and can indicate issues with a given organization, such as excessive total liabilities or inconsistent profits. This high of an ROE can tell you that you might not get a significant return on investment.
Furthermore, if a company has a negative ROE because it has a net loss on income or negative shareholders’ equity, it can’t be used to analyze a company whatsoever. Therefore, it’s a relatively useless measurement metric for investors and yourself in that circumstance.
So, you should also analyze your business by looking at things like your balance sheet, the return on invested capital, and more. The more ways you have to analyze your business, the better you’ll be able to right the proverbial ship if things are going poorly.
ROE can be an effective way to understand the overall financial health and efficiency of your business or the efficiency of a business you wish to invest in. Use return on equity to decide whether your management team is performing well or poorly and make adjustments as needed.
That information can also help you determine where to funnel money for your advertising budget. Tools like AdQuick are just what you need to make the most of any marketing budget you have, especially when it comes to out-of-home or OOH advertising. Check out AdQuick today to see how it can help you buy and secure billboard ad space easier than ever.
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