UL Solutions Inc.’s (NYSE:ULS) Stock Has Been Sliding But Fundamentals Look Strong: Is The Market Wrong?

UL Solutions (NYSE:ULS) has had a rough three months with its share price down 17%. However, a closer look at its sound financials might cause you to think again. Given that fundamentals usually drive long-term market outcomes, the company is worth looking at. Specifically, we decided to study UL Solutions’ ROE in this article.

ROE or return on equity is a useful tool to assess how effectively a company can generate returns on the investment it received from its shareholders. In other words, it is a profitability ratio which measures the rate of return on the capital provided by the company’s shareholders.

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How Is ROE Calculated?

Return on equity can be calculated by using the formula:

Return on Equity = Net Profit (from continuing operations) ÷ Shareholders’ Equity

So, based on the above formula, the ROE for UL Solutions is:

29% = US$359m ÷ US$1.2b (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2025).

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 $0.29.

View our latest analysis for UL Solutions

Why Is ROE Important For Earnings Growth?

Thus far, we have learned that ROE measures how efficiently a company is generating its profits. We now need to evaluate how much profit the company reinvests or “retains” for future growth which then gives us an idea about the growth potential of the company. Assuming all else is equal, companies that have both a higher return on equity and higher profit retention are usually the ones that have a higher growth rate when compared to companies that don’t have the same features.

UL Solutions’ Earnings Growth And 29% ROE

Firstly, we acknowledge that UL Solutions has a significantly high ROE. Secondly, even when compared to the industry average of 21% the company’s ROE is quite impressive. This probably laid the groundwork for UL Solutions’ moderate 7.4% net income growth seen over the past five years.

Next, on comparing with the industry net income growth, we found that UL Solutions’ reported growth was lower than the industry growth of 13% over the last few years, which is not something we like to see.

NYSE:ULS Past Earnings Growth February 7th 2026

Earnings growth is a huge factor in stock valuation. It’s important for an investor to know whether the market has priced in the company’s expected earnings growth (or decline). Doing so will help them establish if the stock’s future looks promising or ominous. What is ULS worth today? The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether ULS is currently mispriced by the market.

Is UL Solutions Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?

UL Solutions has a healthy combination of a moderate three-year median payout ratio of 31% (or a retention ratio of 69%) and a respectable amount of growth in earnings as we saw above, meaning that the company has been making efficient use of its profits.

While UL Solutions has seen growth in its earnings, it only recently started to pay a dividend. It is most likely that the company decided to impress new and existing shareholders with a dividend. Existing analyst estimates suggest that the company’s future payout ratio is expected to drop to 21% over the next three years. Regardless, the ROE is not expected to change much for the company despite the lower expected payout ratio.

Conclusion

On the whole, we feel that UL Solutions’ performance has been quite good. Particularly, we like that the company is reinvesting heavily into its business, and at a high rate of return. As a result, the decent growth in its earnings is not surprising. Having said that, looking at the current analyst estimates, we found that the company’s earnings are expected to gain momentum. Are these analysts expectations based on the broad expectations for the industry, or on the company’s fundamentals? Click here to be taken to our analyst’s forecasts page for the company.

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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.