Is Weakness In Legacy Housing Corporation (NASDAQ:LEGH) Stock A Sign That The Market Could be Wrong Given Its Strong Financial Prospects?

It is hard to get excited after looking at Legacy Housing's (NASDAQ:LEGH) recent performance, when its stock has declined 7.8% over the past week. However, stock prices are usually driven by a company’s financial performance over the long term, which in this case looks quite promising. In this article, we decided to focus on Legacy Housing's ROE.

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 simpler terms, it measures the profitability of a company in relation to shareholder's equity.

See our latest analysis for Legacy Housing

How Do You Calculate Return On Equity?

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 Legacy Housing is:

11% = US$54m ÷ US$479m (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2024).

The 'return' is the profit over the last twelve months. One way to conceptualize this is that for each $1 of shareholders' capital it has, the company made $0.11 in profit.

Why Is ROE Important For 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. Assuming all else is equal, companies that have both a higher return on equity and higher profit retention are usually the ones that have a higher growth rate when compared to companies that don't have the same features.

Legacy Housing's Earnings Growth And 11% ROE

To start with, Legacy Housing's ROE looks acceptable. Be that as it may, the company's ROE is still quite lower than the industry average of 16%. However, the moderate 15% net income growth seen by Legacy Housing over the past five years is definitely a positive. Therefore, the growth in earnings could probably have been caused by other variables. Such as - high earnings retention or an efficient management in place. However, not to forget, the company does have a decent ROE to begin with, just that it is lower than the industry average. So this also provides some context to the earnings growth seen by the company.

Next, on comparing Legacy Housing's net income growth with the industry, we found that the company's reported growth is similar to the industry average growth rate of 17% over the last few years.

Earnings growth is a huge factor in stock valuation. The investor should try to establish if the expected growth or decline in earnings, whichever the case may be, is priced in. This then helps them determine if the stock is placed for a bright or bleak future. What is LEGH worth today? The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether LEGH is currently mispriced by the market.

Is Legacy Housing Using Its Retained Earnings Effectively?

Legacy Housing doesn't pay any regular dividends currently which essentially means that it has been reinvesting all of its profits into the business. This definitely contributes to the decent earnings growth number that we discussed above.

Summary

Overall, we are quite pleased with Legacy Housing's performance. In particular, it's great to see that the company has seen significant growth in its earnings backed by a respectable ROE and a high reinvestment rate. That being so, a study of the latest analyst forecasts show that the company is expected to see a slowdown in its future earnings growth. To know more about the latest analysts predictions for the company, check out this visualization of analyst forecasts for the company.

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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.