Wednesday 3 June 2009

Return on Equity

Return on Equity

Abbreviated as ROE, refers to a measure of how well a firm used reinvested earnings to generate additional earnings, equal to a fiscal year's after-tax income (after preferred stock dividends but before common stock dividends) divided by book value, expressed as a percentage.

It is used as a general indication of the firm's efficiency; in other words, how much profit it is able to generate given the resources provided by its stockholders. investors generally look for firms with returns on equity that are high and growing.

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