Thursday, November 11, 2010

ROE & Return On Assets - ROA

What Does Return On Equity - ROE Mean?

The amount of net income returned as a percentage of shareholders equity. Return on equity measures a corporation's profitability by revealing how much profit a company generates with the money shareholders have invested.

ROE is expressed as a percentage and calculated as:

Return on Equity = Net Income/Shareholder's Equity

Net income is for the full fiscal year (before dividends paid to common stock holders but after dividends to preferred stock.) Shareholder's equity does not include preferred shares.

Also known as "return on net worth" (RONW).


What Does Return On Assets - ROA Mean?

An indicator of how profitable a company is relative to its total assets. ROA gives an idea as to how efficient management is at using its assets to generate earnings. Calculated by dividing a company's annual earnings by its total assets, ROA is displayed as a percentage. Sometimes this is referred to as "return on investment".

The formula for return on assets is: = Net Income/Total Assets

Note: Some investors add interest expense back into net income when performing this calculation because they'd like to use operating returns before cost of borrowing

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