Retained Earnings

The Retained Earnings Fundamental Analysis lookup allows you to check this and other indicators for any equity instrument. You can also select from a set of available indicators by clicking on the link to the right. Please note, this module does not cover all equities due to inconsistencies in global equity categorizations. Please continue to Equity Screeners to view more equity screening tools.
  
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.

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Pair Trading with Investor Education

One of the main advantages of trading using pair correlations is that every trade hedges away some risk. Because there are two separate transactions required, even if Investor Education position performs unexpectedly, the other equity can make up some of the losses. Pair trading also minimizes risk from directional movements in the market. For example, if an entire industry or sector drops because of unexpected headlines, the short position in Investor Education will appreciate offsetting losses from the drop in the long position's value.
The ability to find closely correlated positions to Microsoft could be a great tool in your tax-loss harvesting strategies, allowing investors a quick way to find a similar-enough asset to replace Microsoft when you sell it. If you don't do this, your portfolio allocation will be skewed against your target asset allocation. So, investors can't just sell and buy back Microsoft - that would be a violation of the tax code under the "wash sale" rule, and this is why you need to find a similar enough asset and use the proceeds from selling Microsoft to buy it.
The correlation of Microsoft is a statistical measure of how it moves in relation to other instruments. This measure is expressed in what is known as the correlation coefficient, which ranges between -1 and +1. A perfect positive correlation (i.e., a correlation coefficient of +1) implies that as Microsoft moves, either up or down, the other security will move in the same direction. Alternatively, perfect negative correlation means that if Microsoft moves in either direction, the perfectly negatively correlated security will move in the opposite direction. If the correlation is 0, the equities are not correlated; they are entirely random. A correlation greater than 0.8 is generally described as strong, whereas a correlation less than 0.5 is generally considered weak.
Correlation analysis and pair trading evaluation for Microsoft can also be used as hedging techniques within a particular sector or industry or even over random equities to generate a better risk-adjusted return on your portfolios.
Pair CorrelationCorrelation Matching
Check out Investing Opportunities to better understand how to build diversified portfolios. Also, note that the market value of any private could be closely tied with the direction of predictive economic indicators such as signals in estimate.
You can also try the Alpha Finder module to use alpha and beta coefficients to find investment opportunities after accounting for the risk.

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