The Motley Fool: Look Closer At Steep Returns

A company's return on equity, or ROE, reflects the productivity of the net assets (assets minus liabilities) that its management has at its disposal. Net income is found on a company's income ­statement. Shareholder equity is found on the balance sheet, and it's also what you get when you subtract liabilities from assets. Debt can be a problem if a ­company can't pay it off, but Altria has lots of free cash flow. Today, I oversee a great global investment community, educating, amusing and enriching millions through my website, newsletter services, books, audio programming, syndicated newspaper feature, CAPS stock-rating service, asset management service and more. (There are more than 2 million copies of my books in print.) I've long advocated for individual investors, exposing conflicts of interests on Wall Street. The Motley Fool c/o Houston Chronicle P.O.