With A Return On Equity Of 9.6%, Has American Water Works Company, Inc.'s (NYSE:AWK) Management Done Well?
With A Return On Equity Of 9.6%, Has American Water Works Company, Inc.'s (NYSE:AWK) Management Done Well?
One of the best investments we can make is in our own knowledge and skill set. With that in mind, this article will work through how we can use Return On Equity (ROE) to better understand a business. By way of learning-by-doing, we'll look at ROE to gain a better understanding of American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK).
我们能做的最好的投资之一是我们自己的知识和技能。考虑到这一点，本文将探讨如何使用股本回报率（ROE）来更好地了解业务。通过边干边学的方式，我们将研究投资回报率，以更好地了解美国自来水公司（纽约证券交易所代码：AWK）。
Return on equity or ROE is a key measure used to assess how efficiently a company's management is utilizing the company's capital. Put another way, it reveals the company's success at turning shareholder investments into profits.
股本回报率或投资回报率是用于评估公司管理层利用公司资本效率的关键指标。换句话说，它揭示了公司成功地将股东投资转化为利润。
How Do You Calculate Return On Equity?
你如何计算股本回报率？
The formula for ROE is:
ROE 的公式是：
Return on Equity = Net Profit (from continuing operations) ÷ Shareholders' Equity
股本回报率 = 净利润（来自持续经营业务）÷ 股东权益
So, based on the above formula, the ROE for American Water Works Company is:
因此，根据上述公式，美国自来水公司的投资回报率为：
9.6% = US$944m ÷ US$9.8b (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2023).
9.6% = 9.44亿美元 ÷ 98亿美元（基于截至2023年12月的过去十二个月）。
The 'return' is the yearly profit. One way to conceptualize this is that for each $1 of shareholders' capital it has, the company made $0.10 in profit.
“回报” 是每年的利润。将其概念化的一种方法是，公司每拥有1美元的股东资本，就会获得0.10美元的利润。
Does American Water Works Company Have A Good Return On Equity?
美国自来水公司的股本回报率是否良好？
Arguably the easiest way to assess company's ROE is to compare it with the average in 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 American Water Works Company has a similar ROE to the average in the Water Utilities industry classification (8.4%).
可以说，评估公司投资回报率的最简单方法是将其与行业平均水平进行比较。这种方法的局限性在于，有些公司与其他公司有很大不同，即使在相同的行业分类中也是如此。如果你看下图，你会发现美国自来水公司的投资回报率与自来水公用事业行业分类中的平均水平（8.4％）相似。
So while the ROE is not exceptional, at least its acceptable. While at least the ROE is not lower than the industry, its still worth checking what role the company's debt plays as high debt levels relative to equity may also make the ROE appear high. If so, this increases its exposure to financial risk. To know the 2 risks we have identified for American Water Works Company visit our risks dashboard for free.
因此，尽管投资回报率并不例外，但至少是可以接受的。尽管至少投资回报率不低于该行业，但仍值得检查该公司的债务起了什么作用，因为相对于股权的高债务水平也可能使投资回报率显得很高。如果是这样，这会增加其金融风险敞口。要了解我们为美国自来水公司确定的两种风险，请免费访问我们的风险仪表板。
How Does Debt Impact Return On Equity?
债务如何影响股本回报率？
Virtually all companies need money to invest in the business, to grow profits. That cash can come from retained earnings, issuing new shares (equity), or debt. In the first two cases, the ROE will capture this use of capital to grow. In the latter case, the debt used for growth will improve returns, but won't affect the total equity. In this manner the use of debt will boost ROE, even though the core economics of the business stay the same.
实际上，所有公司都需要资金来投资业务，以增加利润。这些现金可以来自留存收益、发行新股（股权）或债务。在前两种情况下，ROE将利用这种资本来增长。在后一种情况下，用于增长的债务将提高回报，但不会影响总权益。通过这种方式，债务的使用将提高投资回报率，尽管企业的核心经济状况保持不变。
Combining American Water Works Company's Debt And Its 9.6% Return On Equity
合并美国自来水公司的债务及其9.6％的股本回报率
American Water Works Company clearly uses a high amount of debt to boost returns, as it has a debt to equity ratio of 1.26. With a fairly low ROE, and significant use of debt, it's hard to get excited about this business at the moment. Debt does bring extra risk, so it's only really worthwhile when a company generates some decent returns from it.
美国自来水公司显然使用大量债务来提高回报，因为其负债权益比率为1.26。由于投资回报率相当低，而且债务使用量很大，目前很难对这项业务感到兴奋。债务确实会带来额外的风险，因此只有当公司从中获得可观的回报时，债务才是真正值得的。
Conclusion
结论
Return on equity is one way we can compare its business quality of different companies. Companies that can achieve high returns on equity without too much debt are generally of good quality. 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.
股本回报率是我们可以比较不同公司的业务质量的一种方式。能够在不负债过多的情况下获得高股本回报的公司通常质量很好。如果两家公司的债务与股权比率大致相同，而一家公司的投资回报率更高，那么我通常更喜欢投资回报率更高的那家公司。
But when a business is high quality, the market often bids it up to a price that reflects this. The rate at which profits are likely to grow, relative to the expectations of profit growth reflected in the current price, must be considered, too. So I think it may be worth checking this free report on analyst forecasts for the company.
但是，当企业质量很高时，市场通常会以反映这一点的价格对其进行出价。相对于当前价格所反映的利润增长预期，还必须考虑利润可能的增长速度。因此，我认为可能值得查看这份关于分析师对公司的预测的免费报告。
Of course American Water Works Company may not be the best stock to buy. So you may wish to see this free collection of other companies that have high ROE and low debt.
当然，美国自来水公司可能不是最值得购买的股票。因此，您不妨免费查看其他投资回报率高、负债率低的公司的名单。
Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.
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.
对这篇文章有反馈吗？对内容感到担忧？直接联系我们。 或者，给编辑团队 (at) simplywallst.com 发送电子邮件。
Simply Wall St的这篇文章本质上是笼统的。我们仅使用公正的方法根据历史数据和分析师的预测提供评论，我们的文章无意作为财务建议。它不构成买入或卖出任何股票的建议，也没有考虑到您的目标或财务状况。我们的目标是为您提供由基本数据驱动的长期重点分析。请注意，我们的分析可能不考虑最新的价格敏感型公司公告或定性材料。简而言之，华尔街没有持有任何上述股票的头寸。