Jet2 plc's (LON:JET2) Stock Has Fared Decently: Is the Market Following Strong Financials?

Jet2's (LON:JET2) stock up by 9.0% 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. Particularly, we will be paying attention to Jet2's ROE today.

Return on Equity or ROE is a test of how effectively a company is growing its value and managing investors’ money. In other words, it is a profitability ratio which measures the rate of return on the capital provided by the company's shareholders.

Check out our latest analysis for Jet2

How Is ROE Calculated?

Return on equity 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 Jet2 is:

28% = UK£399m ÷ UK£1.4b (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2024).

The 'return' is the amount earned after tax over the last twelve months. Another way to think of that is that for every £1 worth of equity, the company was able to earn £0.28 in profit.

Why Is ROE Important For Earnings Growth?

We have already established that ROE serves as an efficient profit-generating gauge for a company's future earnings. 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. 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.

Jet2's Earnings Growth And 28% ROE

Firstly, we acknowledge that Jet2 has a significantly high ROE. Even when compared to the industry average of 28% the company's ROE is pretty decent. Given the circumstances, the significant 32% net income growth seen by Jet2 over the last five years is not surprising.

We then performed a comparison between Jet2's net income growth with the industry, which revealed that the company's growth is similar to the average industry growth of 32% in the same 5-year period.

Earnings growth is a huge factor in stock valuation. 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 Jet2's's valuation, check out this gauge of its price-to-earnings ratio, as compared to its industry.

Is Jet2 Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?

Jet2's three-year median payout ratio to shareholders is 6.5%, which is quite low. This implies that the company is retaining 94% of its profits. This suggests that the management is reinvesting most of the profits to grow the business as evidenced by the growth seen by the company.

Additionally, Jet2 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's future payout ratio is expected to rise to 9.4% over the next three years. Therefore, the expected rise in the payout ratio explains why the company's ROE is expected to decline to 20% over the same period.

Conclusion

In total, we are pretty happy with Jet2's performance. Specifically, we like that the company is reinvesting a huge chunk of its profits at a high rate of return. This of course has caused the company to see substantial growth in its earnings. With that said, the latest industry analyst forecasts reveal that the company's earnings growth is expected to slow down. 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.

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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.