Intuitive Surgical, Inc.'s (NASDAQ:ISRG) Stock Has Fared Decently: Is the Market Following Strong Financials?

Intuitive Surgical's (NASDAQ:ISRG) stock up by 5.0% over the past three months. Given its impressive performance, we decided to study the company's key financial indicators as a company's long-term fundamentals usually dictate market outcomes. Specifically, we decided to study Intuitive Surgical's ROE in this article.

Return on Equity or ROE is a test of how effectively a company is growing its value and managing investors’ money. Simply put, it is used to assess the profitability of a company in relation to its equity capital.

View our latest analysis for Intuitive Surgical

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 Intuitive Surgical is:

11% = US$1.1b ÷ US$9.8b (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2020).

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 $0.11.

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. Depending on how much of these profits the company reinvests or "retains", and how effectively it does so, we are then able to assess a company’s earnings growth potential. 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.

A Side By Side comparison of Intuitive Surgical's Earnings Growth And 11% ROE

To start with, Intuitive Surgical's ROE looks acceptable. And on comparing with the industry, we found that the the average industry ROE is similar at 11%. This certainly adds some context to Intuitive Surgical's moderate 15% net income growth seen over the past five years.

We then performed a comparison between Intuitive Surgical's net income growth with the industry, which revealed that the company's growth is similar to the average industry growth of 15% in the same period.

Earnings growth is an important metric to consider when valuing a stock. 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 Intuitive Surgical fairly valued compared to other companies? These 3 valuation measures might help you decide.

Is Intuitive Surgical Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?

Summary

Overall, we are quite pleased with Intuitive Surgical'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. We also studied the latest analyst forecasts and found that the company's earnings growth is expected be similar to its current growth rate. 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. 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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