Is Sprouts Farmers Market, Inc.'s (NASDAQ:SFM) Recent Stock Performance Tethered To Its Strong Fundamentals?

Sprouts Farmers Market (NASDAQ:SFM) has had a great run on the share market with its stock up by a significant 49% over the last three months. Since the market usually pay for a company’s long-term fundamentals, we decided to study the company’s key performance indicators to see if they could be influencing the market. In this article, we decided to focus on Sprouts Farmers Market'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.

Check out our latest analysis for Sprouts Farmers Market

How Is ROE Calculated?

The formula for ROE is:

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

So, based on the above formula, the ROE for Sprouts Farmers Market is:

25% = US$297m ÷ US$1.2b (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2024).

The 'return' refers to a company's earnings over the last year. That means that for every $1 worth of shareholders' equity, the company generated $0.25 in profit.

What Has ROE Got To Do With 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.

Sprouts Farmers Market's Earnings Growth And 25% ROE

First thing first, we like that Sprouts Farmers Market has an impressive ROE. Additionally, the company's ROE is higher compared to the industry average of 12% which is quite remarkable. This likely paved the way for the modest 10% net income growth seen by Sprouts Farmers Market over the past five years.

Next, on comparing with the industry net income growth, we found that Sprouts Farmers Market's reported growth was lower than the industry growth of 15% over the last few years, which is not something we like to see.

The basis for attaching value to a company is, to a great extent, tied to its earnings growth. What investors need to determine next is if the expected earnings growth, or the lack of it, is already built into the share price. Doing so will help them establish if the stock's future looks promising or ominous. Is Sprouts Farmers Market fairly valued compared to other companies? These 3 valuation measures might help you decide.

Is Sprouts Farmers Market Using Its Retained Earnings Effectively?

Sprouts Farmers Market doesn't pay any regular dividends, meaning that all of its profits are being reinvested in the business, which explains the fair bit of earnings growth the company has seen.

Summary

On the whole, we feel that Sprouts Farmers Market's performance has been quite good. 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 respectable 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 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.