Is Prudential Financial, Inc.'s (NYSE:PRU) 7.4% ROE Worse Than Average?
Is Prudential Financial, Inc.'s (NYSE:PRU) 7.4% ROE Worse Than Average?
Many investors are still learning about the various metrics that can be useful when analysing a stock. This article is for those who would like to learn about Return On Equity (ROE). To keep the lesson grounded in practicality, we'll use ROE to better understand Prudential Financial, Inc. (NYSE:PRU).
许多投资者仍在了解有用于分析股票时的各种指标。本文是为那些想了解股东权益回报率（ROE）的人准备的。为了使课堂更务实，我们将运用ROE来更好地了解保德信金融股份有限公司（NYSE:纽交所:PRU）。
Return on Equity or ROE is a test of how effectively a company is growing its value and managing investors' money. In simpler terms, it measures the profitability of a company in relation to shareholder's equity.
股东权益回报率ROE是测试公司增值能力和管理股东投资的有效性的指标。更简单地说，它衡量公司在股东权益中的盈利能力。
How Do You Calculate Return On Equity?
怎样计算ROE?
ROE can be calculated by using the formula:
净资产收益率可以使用以下公式进行计算：
Return on Equity = Net Profit (from continuing operations) ÷ Shareholders' Equity
净资产收益率 = 净利润（从持续经营中获得）÷ 股东权益
So, based on the above formula, the ROE for Prudential Financial is:
因此，根据上述公式，保德信金融的ROE为:
7.4% = US$2.2b ÷ US$29b (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2024).
7.4% = 22亿美元 ÷ 290亿美元（基于追踪到2024年3月的十二个月）。
The 'return' is the income the business earned over the last year. So, this means that for every $1 of its shareholder's investments, the company generates a profit of $0.07.
“回报”是业务在过去一年中赚取的收入。这意味着，对于股东的每1美元投资，公司可以创造0.07美元的利润。
Does Prudential Financial Have A Good ROE?
保德信金融的ROE怎么样？
One simple way to determine if a company has a good return on equity is to compare it to the average for its industry. The limitation of this approach is that some companies are quite different from others, even within the same industry classification. If you look at the image below, you can see Prudential Financial has a lower ROE than the average (13%) in the Insurance industry classification.
判断公司股东权益回报率是否良好的一种简单方法是将其与行业平均值进行比较。这种方法的局限性在于，即使在同一行业分类中，有些公司也与其他公司有很大不同。如果你看一下下面的图像，你可以看到保德信金融的ROE低于保险业分类的平均值（13%）。
That's not what we like to see. Although, we think that a lower ROE could still mean that a company has the opportunity to better its returns with the use of leverage, provided its existing debt levels are low. A high debt company having a low ROE is a different story altogether and a risky investment in our books.
这不是我们想看到的。尽管我们认为较低的ROE仍然意味着一家公司有利用杠杆提高其回报的机会，前提是其现有债务水平较低。高债务公司ROE低则完全不同，是我们书中的一项风险投资。
The Importance Of Debt To Return On Equity
债务对股本回报率的重要性
Virtually all companies need money to invest in the business, to grow profits. The cash for investment can come from prior year profits (retained earnings), issuing new shares, or borrowing. In the case of the first and second options, the ROE will reflect this use of cash, for growth. In the latter case, the use of debt will improve the returns, but will not change the equity. That will make the ROE look better than if no debt was used.
几乎所有公司都需要资金来投资业务、提高利润。投资的现金可以来自前年的利润（留存收益）、发行新股或借款。在前两种选择的情况下，ROE将反映出资金用于成长的情况。在后一种情况下，债务的使用将提高回报，但不会改变股权。这将使ROE看起来比不使用债务要好。
Combining Prudential Financial's Debt And Its 7.4% Return On Equity
结合保德信金融的债务和其7.4%的股东权益回报率
It's worth noting the high use of debt by Prudential Financial, leading to its debt to equity ratio of 1.27. With a fairly low ROE, and significant use of debt, it's hard to get excited about this business at the moment. Investors should think carefully about how a company might perform if it was unable to borrow so easily, because credit markets do change over time.
值得注意的是，保德信金融使用了大量的债务，导致其负债股本比率为1.27。由于ROE相对较低且债务使用显著，目前很难对这家企业感到兴奋。投资者应认真考虑一家公司如果难以轻易借款会表现如何，因为信贷市场随着时间的推移会发生变化。
Conclusion
结论
Return on equity is one way we can compare its business quality of different companies. A company that can achieve a high return on equity without debt could be considered a high quality business. If two companies have around the same level of debt to equity, and one has a higher ROE, I'd generally prefer the one with higher ROE.
ROE是我们可以比较不同公司业务质量的一种方式。没有负债可以实现高ROE的公司可以被认为是高质量的公司。如果两家公司的负债与股本约同，并且一家公司的ROE更高，则我通常更喜欢ROE更高的公司。
But when a business is high quality, the market often bids it up to a price that reflects this. Profit growth rates, versus the expectations reflected in the price of the stock, are a particularly important to consider. So you might want to take a peek at this data-rich interactive graph of forecasts for the company.
但是，当企业属于高质量时，市场经常将其标价以反映其优势。折现率的盈利增长率与股票价格中体现的预期相比，是需要特别考虑的。因此，您可能需要查看这份数据丰富的交互式图表，以了解该公司的预测。
Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies.
当然，您也可能通过寻找其他地方来找到出色的投资。因此，不妨查看这个有趣公司的免费列表。
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Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com
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