Lexington Realty Trust's (NYSE:LXP) Stock Is Going Strong: Have Financials A Role To Play?
Lexington Realty Trust's (NYSE:LXP) stock is up by a considerable 6.8% over the past month. Given that stock prices are usually aligned with a company's financial performance in the long-term, we decided to study its financial indicators more closely to see if they had a hand to play in the recent price move. In this article, we decided to focus on Lexington Realty Trust's ROE.
Return on Equity or ROE is a test of how effectively a company is growing its value and managing investors’ money. Put another way, it reveals the company's success at turning shareholder investments into profits.
Check out our latest analysis for Lexington Realty Trust
How To 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 Lexington Realty Trust is:
9.4% = US$186m ÷ US$2.0b (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2020).
The 'return' is the yearly profit. So, this means that for every $1 of its shareholder's investments, the company generates a profit of $0.09.
What Has ROE Got To Do With Earnings Growth?
Thus far, we have learned that ROE measures how efficiently a company is generating its profits. 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.
Lexington Realty Trust's Earnings Growth And 9.4% ROE
On the face of it, Lexington Realty Trust's ROE is not much to talk about. However, the fact that the its ROE is quite higher to the industry average of 5.1% doesn't go unnoticed by us. Especially when you consider Lexington Realty Trust's exceptional 24% net income growth over the past five years. Bear in mind, the company does have a moderately low ROE. It is just that the industry ROE is lower. So, there might well be other reasons for the earnings to grow. Such as- high earnings retention or the company belonging to a high growth industry.
Next, on comparing with the industry net income growth, we found that Lexington Realty Trust's growth is quite high when compared to the industry average growth of 10% in the same period, which is great to see.
The basis for attaching value to a company is, to a great extent, tied to its earnings growth. It’s important for an investor to know whether the market has priced in the company's expected earnings growth (or decline). This then helps them determine if the stock is placed for a bright or bleak future. Has the market priced in the future outlook for LXP? You can find out in our latest intrinsic value infographic research report.
Is Lexington Realty Trust Making Efficient Use Of Its Profits?
Lexington Realty Trust has a very high three-year median payout ratio of 70%. This means that it has only 30% of its income left to reinvest into its business. However, it's not unusual to see a REIT with such a high payout ratio mainly due to statutory requirements. Despite this, the company's earnings have grown significantly as we saw above.
Additionally, Lexington Realty Trust 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. Upon studying the latest analysts' consensus data, we found that the company is expected to keep paying out approximately 59% of its profits over the next three years. However, Lexington Realty Trust's future ROE is expected to decline to 1.7% despite there being not much change anticipated in the company's payout ratio.
Conclusion
On the whole, we do feel that Lexington Realty Trust has some positive attributes. Especially the substantial growth in earnings backed by a decent ROE. Despite the company reinvesting only a small portion of its profits, it still has managed to grow its earnings so that is appreciable. With that said, on studying the latest analyst forecasts, we found that while the company has seen growth in its past earnings, analysts expect its future earnings to shrink. To know more about the company's future earnings growth forecasts take a look at this free report on analyst forecasts for the company to find out more.
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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