With A Return On Equity Of 12%, Has Equifax Inc.'s (NYSE:EFX) Management Done Well?
With A Return On Equity Of 12%, Has Equifax Inc.'s (NYSE:EFX) Management Done Well?
While some investors are already well versed in financial metrics (hat tip), this article is for those who would like to learn about Return On Equity (ROE) and why it is important. By way of learning-by-doing, we'll look at ROE to gain a better understanding of Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX).
儘管一些投資者已經精通財務指標（帽子提示），但本文適合那些想了解股本回報率（ROE）及其重要性的人。通過邊幹邊學，我們將研究投資回報率，以更好地了解Equifax Inc.（紐約證券交易所代碼：EFX）。
Return on Equity or ROE is a test of how effectively a company is growing its value and managing investors' money. In other words, it is a profitability ratio which measures the rate of return on the capital provided by the company's shareholders.
股本回報率或投資回報率是對公司增值和管理投資者資金的有效性的考驗。換句話說，它是衡量公司股東提供的資本回報率的盈利比率。
View our latest analysis for Equifax
查看我們對 Equifax 的最新分析
How Is ROE Calculated?
ROE 是如何計算的？
Return on equity can be calculated by using the formula:
股本回報率可以使用以下公式計算：
Return on Equity = Net Profit (from continuing operations) ÷ Shareholders' Equity
股本回報率 = 淨利潤（來自持續經營業務）÷ 股東權益
So, based on the above formula, the ROE for Equifax is:
因此，根據上述公式，Equifax的投資回報率爲：
12% = US$526m ÷ US$4.5b (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2023).
12% = 5.26億美元 ¥45億美元（基於截至2023年9月的過去十二個月）。
The 'return' refers to a company's earnings over the last year. So, this means that for every $1 of its shareholder's investments, the company generates a profit of $0.12.
“回報” 是指公司去年的收益。因此，這意味着其股東每投資1美元，公司就會產生0.12美元的利潤。
Does Equifax Have A Good Return On Equity?
Equifax 的股本回報率是否良好？
By comparing a company's ROE with its industry average, we can get a quick measure of how good it is. 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 Equifax has a similar ROE to the average in the Professional Services industry classification (12%).
通過將公司的投資回報率與行業平均水平進行比較，我們可以快速衡量其表現如何。這種方法的侷限性在於，有些公司與其他公司有很大不同，即使屬於相同的行業分類也是如此。如果你看下圖，你會發現Equifax的投資回報率與專業服務行業分類中的平均水平相似（12％）。
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.
因此，儘管ROE並不例外，但至少是可以接受的。儘管至少投資回報率不低於該行業，但仍然值得檢查該公司的債務起什麼作用，因爲相對於股本的高債務水平也可能使投資回報率顯得很高。如果是這樣，則會增加其財務風險敞口。
The Importance Of Debt To Return On Equity
債務對股本回報率的重要性
Most companies need money -- from somewhere -- to grow their profits. That cash can come from retained earnings, issuing new shares (equity), or debt. In the case of the first and second options, the ROE will reflect this use of cash, for growth. 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.
大多數公司需要來自某個地方的資金來增加利潤。這些現金可能來自留存收益、發行新股（股權）或債務。對於第一和第二種選擇，投資回報率將反映這種對現金增長的使用。在後一種情況下，用於增長的債務將提高回報，但不會影響總資產。通過這種方式，儘管企業的核心經濟保持不變，但債務的使用將提高投資回報率。
Combining Equifax's Debt And Its 12% Return On Equity
結合Equifax的債務及其12％的股本回報率
Equifax clearly uses a high amount of debt to boost returns, as it has a debt to equity ratio of 1.34. 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.
Equifax顯然使用大量債務來提高回報，因爲它的負債權益比率爲1.34。由於投資回報率相當低，債務使用量大，目前很難對這項業務感到興奮。債務確實帶來了額外的風險，因此只有當一家公司從中獲得可觀的回報時，債務才真正值得。
Conclusion
結論
Return on equity is one way we can compare its business quality of different companies. In our books, the highest quality companies have high return on equity, despite low debt. All else being equal, a higher ROE is better.
股本回報率是我們可以比較不同公司的業務質量的一種方式。在我們的賬簿中，儘管債務很低，但質量最高的公司的股本回報率卻很高。在其他條件相同的情況下，更高的投資回報率更好。
But when a business is high quality, the market often bids it up to a price that reflects this. It is important to consider other factors, such as future profit growth -- and how much investment is required going forward. So I think it may be worth checking this free report on analyst forecasts for the company.
但是，當企業質量很高時，市場通常會以反映這一點的價格對其進行出價。重要的是要考慮其他因素，例如未來的利潤增長以及未來需要多少投資。因此，我認爲可能值得查看這份關於分析師對公司的預測的免費報告。
But note: Equifax may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies with high ROE and low debt.
但請注意：Equifax可能不是最值得買入的股票。因此，來看看這份免費列出的投資回報率高、債務低的有趣公司的名單。
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