With its stock down 20% over the past three months, it is easy to disregard SiteOne Landscape Supply (NYSE:SITE). It seems that the market might have completely ignored the positive aspects of the company's fundamentals and decided to weigh-in more on the negative aspects. Long-term fundamentals are usually what drive market outcomes, so it's worth paying close attention. In this article, we decided to focus on SiteOne Landscape Supply's ROE.

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.

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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 SiteOne Landscape Supply is:

7.8% = US$124m ÷ US$1.6b (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2025).

The 'return' is the amount earned after tax over the last twelve months. So, this means that for every $1 of its shareholder's investments, the company generates a profit of $0.08.

View our latest analysis for SiteOne Landscape Supply

What Has ROE Got To Do With 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. Generally speaking, other things being equal, firms with a high return on equity and profit retention, have a higher growth rate than firms that don’t share these attributes.

SiteOne Landscape Supply's Earnings Growth And 7.8% ROE

At first glance, SiteOne Landscape Supply's ROE doesn't look very promising. A quick further study shows that the company's ROE doesn't compare favorably to the industry average of 15% either. Thus, the low net income growth of 4.0% seen by SiteOne Landscape Supply over the past five years could probably be the result of the low ROE.

As a next step, we compared SiteOne Landscape Supply's net income growth with the industry and were disappointed to see that the company's growth is lower than the industry average growth of 22% 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. This then helps them determine if the stock is placed for a bright or bleak future. If you're wondering about SiteOne Landscape Supply's's valuation, check out this gauge of its price-to-earnings ratio, as compared to its industry.

Is SiteOne Landscape Supply Making Efficient Use Of Its Profits?

SiteOne Landscape Supply doesn't pay any regular dividends, which means that it is retaining all of its earnings. This doesn't explain the low earnings growth number that we discussed above. So there could be some other explanation in that regard. For instance, the company's business may be deteriorating.

Conclusion

In total, we're a bit ambivalent about SiteOne Landscape Supply's performance. Even though it appears to be retaining most of its profits, given the low ROE, investors may not be benefitting from all that reinvestment after all. The low earnings growth suggests our theory correct. That being so, the latest analyst forecasts show that the company will continue to see an expansion in its earnings. Are these analysts expectations based on the broad expectations for the industry, or on the company's fundamentals? Click here to be taken to our analyst's forecasts page 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.