Essential Properties Realty Trust, Inc.'s (NYSE:EPRT) Stock Has Shown A Decent Performance: Have Financials A Role To Play?

Most readers would already know that Essential Properties Realty Trust's (NYSE:EPRT) stock increased by 9.3% over the past three months. As most would know, long-term fundamentals have a strong correlation with market price movements, so we decided to look at the company's key financial indicators today to determine if they have any role to play in the recent price movement. Particularly, we will be paying attention to Essential Properties Realty Trust's ROE today.

Return on Equity or ROE is a test of how effectively a company is growing its value and managing investors’ money. Put another way, it reveals the company's success at turning shareholder investments into profits.

See our latest analysis for Essential Properties Realty Trust

How To Calculate Return On Equity?

The formula for ROE is:

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

So, based on the above formula, the ROE for Essential Properties Realty Trust is:

6.2% = US$197m ÷ US$3.2b (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 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 $0.06 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. 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 Essential Properties Realty Trust's Earnings Growth And 6.2% ROE

At first glance, Essential Properties Realty Trust's ROE doesn't look very promising. Yet, a closer study shows that the company's ROE is similar to the industry average of 6.1%. Moreover, we are quite pleased to see that Essential Properties Realty Trust's net income grew significantly at a rate of 35% over the last five years. Considering the moderately low ROE, it is quite possible that there might be some other aspects that are positively influencing the company's earnings growth. Such as - high earnings retention or an efficient management in place.

As a next step, we compared Essential Properties Realty Trust's net income growth with the industry, and pleasingly, we found that the growth seen by the company is higher than the average industry growth of 19%.

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). This then helps them determine if the stock is placed for a bright or bleak future. If you're wondering about Essential Properties Realty Trust's's valuation, check out this gauge of its price-to-earnings ratio, as compared to its industry.

Is Essential Properties Realty Trust Using Its Retained Earnings Effectively?

Essential Properties Realty Trust seems to be paying out most of its income as dividends judging by its three-year median payout ratio of 65%, meaning the company retains only 35% of its income. However, this is typical for REITs as they are often required by law to distribute most of their earnings. Regardless, this hasn't hampered its ability to grow as we saw earlier.

Moreover, Essential Properties Realty Trust is determined to keep sharing its profits with shareholders which we infer from its long history of six years of paying a dividend. Looking at the current analyst consensus data, we can see that the company's future payout ratio is expected to rise to 91% over the next three years. However, the company's ROE is not expected to change by much despite the higher expected payout ratio.

Summary

On the whole, we do feel that Essential Properties Realty Trust has some positive attributes. That is, quite an impressive growth in earnings. However, the low profit retention means that the company's earnings growth could have been higher, had it been reinvesting a higher portion of its profits. Having said that, the company's earnings growth is expected to slow down, as forecasted in the current analyst estimates. 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.