To The Moon

$Meta Platforms, Inc.(META)$ Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) has had a rough three months with its share price down 16%. However, stock prices are usually driven by a company’s financial performance over the long term, which in this case looks quite promising. Particularly, we will be paying attention toMeta Platforms'ROE today.

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. In other words, it is a profitability ratio which measures the rate of return on the capital provided by the company's shareholders.

How To Calculate Return On Equity?

Theformula for return on equityis:

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

So, based on the above formula, the ROE for Meta Platforms is:

27% = US$34b ÷ US$126b (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2022).

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 $0.27.

What Is The Relationship Between ROE And Earnings Growth?

So far, we've learned that ROE is a measure of a company's profitability. Based on how much of its profits the company chooses to reinvest or "retain", we are then able to evaluate a company's future ability to generate profits. 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.

Meta Platforms' Earnings Growth And 27% ROE

First thing first, we like that Meta Platforms has an impressive ROE. Second, a comparison with the average ROE reported by the industry of 7.0% also doesn't go unnoticed by us. So, the substantial 21% net income growth seen by Meta Platforms over the past five years isn't overly surprising.

Next, on comparing Meta Platforms' net income growth with the industry, we found that the company's reported growth is similar to the industry average growth rate of 18% in the same period.

past-earnings-growth

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). Doing so will help them establish if the stock's future looks promising or ominous. If you're wondering about Meta Platforms''s valuation, check outthis gauge of its price-to-earnings ratio, as compared to its industry.

Is Meta Platforms Using Its Retained Earnings Effectively?

Meta Platforms doesn't pay any dividend currently which essentially means that it has been reinvesting all of its profits into the business. This definitely contributes to the high earnings growth number that we discussed above.

Summary

In total, we are pretty happy with Meta Platforms' 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, the company's earnings growth is expected to slow down, as forecasted in the current analyst estimates. 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.