Should Weakness in Brooks Automation, Inc.’s (NASDAQ:BRKS) Stock Be Seen As A Sign That Market Will Correct The Share Price Given Decent Financials? -…

With its stock down 9.9% over the past week, it is easy to disregard Brooks Automation (NASDAQ:BRKS). But if you pay close attention, you might find that its key financial indicators look quite decent, which could mean that the stock could potentially rise in the long-term given how markets usually reward more resilient long-term fundamentals. In this article, we decided to focus on Brooks Automation's ROE.

Return on equity or ROE is a key measure used to assess how efficiently a company's management is utilizing the company's capital. Simply put, it is used to assess the profitability of a company in relation to its equity capital.

Check out our latest analysis for Brooks Automation

ROE 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 Brooks Automation is:

6.3% = US$79m US$1.3b (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2020).

The 'return' is the amount earned after tax over the last twelve months. One way to conceptualize this is that for each $1 of shareholders' capital it has, the company made $0.06 in profit.

Thus far, we have learned that ROE measures how efficiently a company is generating its profits. We now need to evaluate how much profit the company reinvests or "retains" for future growth which then gives us an idea about the growth potential of the company. Generally speaking, other things being equal, firms with a high return on equity and profit retention, have a higher growth rate than firms that dont share these attributes.

When you first look at it, Brooks Automation's ROE doesn't look that attractive. A quick further study shows that the company's ROE doesn't compare favorably to the industry average of 12% either. In spite of this, Brooks Automation was able to grow its net income considerably, at a rate of 47% in the last five years. We reckon that there could be other factors at play here. For example, it is possible that the company's management has made some good strategic decisions, or that the company has a low payout ratio.

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We then compared Brooks Automation's net income growth with the industry and we're pleased to see that the company's growth figure is higher when compared with the industry which has a growth rate of 14% in the same period.

past-earnings-growth

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. If you're wondering about Brooks Automation's's valuation, check out this gauge of its price-to-earnings ratio, as compared to its industry.

Brooks Automation's significant three-year median payout ratio of 71% (where it is retaining only 29% of its income) suggests that the company has been able to achieve a high growth in earnings despite returning most of its income to shareholders.

Besides, Brooks Automation has been paying dividends for at least ten years or more. This shows that the company is committed to sharing profits with its shareholders. Upon studying the latest analysts' consensus data, we found that the company's future payout ratio is expected to drop to 32% over the next three years. As a result, the expected drop in Brooks Automation's payout ratio explains the anticipated rise in the company's future ROE to 10%, over the same period.

Overall, we feel that Brooks Automation certainly does have some positive factors to consider. 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. 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.

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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Should Weakness in Brooks Automation, Inc.'s (NASDAQ:BRKS) Stock Be Seen As A Sign That Market Will Correct The Share Price Given Decent Financials? -...