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Are Robust Financials Driving The Recent Rally In Insteel Industries, Inc.'s (NYSE:IIIN) Stock?

Insteel Industries' (NYSE:IIIN) stock is up by a considerable 7.0% over the past month. Given the company's impressive performance, we decided to study its financial indicators more closely as a company's financial health over the long-term usually dictates market outcomes. Particularly, we will be paying attention to Insteel Industries' ROE today.

Return on Equity or ROE is a test of how effectively a company is growing its value and managing investors’ money. Simply put, it is used to assess the profitability of a company in relation to its equity capital.

View our latest analysis for Insteel Industries

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 Insteel Industries is:

32% = US$125m ÷ US$390m (Based on the trailing twelve months to October 2022).

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 $0.32 in profit.

What Is The Relationship Between ROE And Earnings Growth?

So far, we've learned that ROE is a measure of a company's profitability. 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 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.

Insteel Industries' Earnings Growth And 32% ROE

Firstly, we acknowledge that Insteel Industries has a significantly high ROE. Secondly, even when compared to the industry average of 24% the company's ROE is quite impressive. As a result, Insteel Industries' exceptional 41% net income growth seen over the past five years, doesn't come as a surprise.

Next, on comparing with the industry net income growth, we found that Insteel Industries' growth is quite high when compared to the industry average growth of 13% in the same period, which is great to see.

past-earnings-growth
past-earnings-growth

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. If you're wondering about Insteel Industries''s valuation, check out this gauge of its price-to-earnings ratio, as compared to its industry.

Is Insteel Industries Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?

Insteel Industries has a really low three-year median payout ratio of 5.5%, meaning that it has the remaining 95% left over to reinvest into its business. So it looks like Insteel Industries is reinvesting profits heavily to grow its business, which shows in its earnings growth.

Moreover, Insteel Industries 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. Our latest analyst data shows that the future payout ratio of the company is expected to drop to 3.1% over the next three years. Regardless, the future ROE for Insteel Industries is predicted to decline to 16% despite the anticipated decrease in the payout ratio. We reckon that there could probably be other factors that could be driving the forseen decline in the company's ROE.

Summary

Overall, we are quite pleased with Insteel Industries' 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 sizeable growth in its earnings. Having said that, on studying current analyst estimates, we were concerned to see that while the company has grown its earnings in the past, analysts expect its earnings to shrink in the future. 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.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.

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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