Retained Earnings

Asset symbol is not found or was delisted

We are unable to locate this entity at this time. If you believe the symbol you are trying to look up is valid, please let us know, and we will check it out. Check all delisted instruments across multiple markets.

Indicator Description

Retained Earnings shows how the firm utilizes its profits over time. In simple terms, investors can think of retained earnings as the amount of profit the company has reinvested in the business since its inceptions. However the methodology to make a decision over how much profit to retain is different between companies in different industries. For example, growing industries tend to retain more of their earnings than more matured industries as they need more assets investment to sustain their growth.

Retained Earnings

 = 

Beginning RE + Income

-

Dividends

Retained Earnings is a balance sheet account that refers to the portion of company income that is retained by the firm. In other words, it is a part of earnings that is not paid out as dividends or otherwise distributed to owners. Retained Earnings are calculated by adding net income to last period retained earnings and subtracting any dividends paid to owners.

Retained Earnings In A Nutshell

Retained earnings are important because if you invest in a company, you want to know they are earning money and are able to keep some for themselves. Looking at the balance sheet, of course you want to see some dividends because that means the company is doing well and internal people being incentivized, but you do not want all the money going out.

When a company goes into business or if you yourself go into business, you want to ensure you have earnings. With that, there is also the retained earnings number, which is beginning retained earnings minus dividends.

Closer Look at Retained Earnings

If you are looking at this number and it appears to be small compared to others in the industry, you may want to look at a few things. First, ensure the company has enough money to be paying dividends because if they are doing poorly and money is still going to shareholders, it may not be the best situation. Secondly, you want to take a look at the underlying health of the company and ensure sales and revenue is coming. If there is a critical error cause the low retained earnings, it may be an indication of what is to come. Lastly, this number may be low because they are reinvesting or paying larger dividends due to the success of the company. Be sure to fully understand the story to understand the rhyme and reason for the number.

Some companies pay constant dividends, some pay no dividends, and others pay dividend that are special, such as when the company is doing exceptionally well. The focus on dividends is important as it is a part of the equation and is one of the most controllable parts of the retained earnings.

This numbers is fantastic for fundamental research and should certainly be used in your research. In no way would it hurt looking at this number and it will only bring value. Be sure to look at other areas of the company and their financials because this may not tell the whole story. Retained earnings are important though because the company needs to keep some money for itself. If you get stuck, reach out to an investing community and bounce your ideas off of them. Should that not work, reach out to your investing professional and they can help to point you in the right direction. Retained earnings is a critical part in the balance sheet and needs to be monitored during and after you invest in a particular company.

Other Suggestions

K KellanovaCompany
KEY-PI KeyCorpCompany
KF Korea ClosedFund
KBA KraneShares Bosera MSCIETF
KSM KusamaCryptocurrency
KCUSX CoffeeCommodity

Analyzing currently trending equities could be an opportunity to develop a better portfolio based on different market momentums that they can trigger. Utilizing the top trending stocks is also useful when creating a market-neutral strategy or pair trading technique involving a short or a long position in a currently trending equity.

Use Investing Themes to Complement your positions

You can quickly originate your optimal portfoio using our predefined set of ideas and optimize them against your very unique investing style. A single investing idea is a collection of funds, stocks, ETFs, or cryptocurrencies that are programmatically selected from a pull of investment themes. After you determine your investment opportunity, you can then find an optimal portfolio that will maximize potential returns on the chosen idea or minimize its exposure to market volatility.

Did You Try This Idea?

Run Services Thematic Idea Now

Services
Services Theme
Companies involved in delivering services to business or consumers across different industries and sectors. The Services theme has 30 constituents at this time.
You can either use a buy-and-hold strategy to lock in the entire theme or actively trade it to take advantage of the short-term price volatility of individual constituents. Macroaxis can help you discover thousands of investment opportunities in different asset classes. In addition, you can partner with us for reliable portfolio optimization as you plan to utilize Services Theme or any other thematic opportunities.
View All  Next Launch
Check out your portfolio center.
Note that this page's information should be used as a complementary analysis to find the right mix of equity instruments to add to your existing portfolios or create a brand new portfolio. You can also try the Efficient Frontier module to plot and analyze your portfolio and positions against risk-return landscape of the market..

Other Complementary Tools

ETF Categories
List of ETF categories grouped based on various criteria, such as the investment strategy or type of investments
Global Markets Map
Get a quick overview of global market snapshot using zoomable world map. Drill down to check world indexes
Fundamentals Comparison
Compare fundamentals across multiple equities to find investing opportunities
Portfolio Dashboard
Portfolio dashboard that provides centralized access to all your investments
Aroon Oscillator
Analyze current equity momentum using Aroon Oscillator and other momentum ratios
Portfolio Rebalancing
Analyze risk-adjusted returns against different time horizons to find asset-allocation targets
Commodity Channel
Use Commodity Channel Index to analyze current equity momentum
Money Flow Index
Determine momentum by analyzing Money Flow Index and other technical indicators
Fundamental Analysis
View fundamental data based on most recent published financial statements
Portfolio Volatility
Check portfolio volatility and analyze historical return density to properly model market risk
Watchlist Optimization
Optimize watchlists to build efficient portfolios or rebalance existing positions based on the mean-variance optimization algorithm