Is FOS Capital Limited's (ASX:FOS) Recent Stock Performance Influenced By Its Fundamentals In Any Way?

Most readers would already be aware that FOS Capital's (ASX:FOS) stock increased significantly by 26% over the past three months. We wonder if and what role the company's financials play in that price change as a company's long-term fundamentals usually dictate market outcomes. Particularly, we will be paying attention to FOS Capital's ROE today.

Return on Equity or ROE is a test of how effectively a company is growing its value and managing investors’ money. Put another way, it reveals the company's success at turning shareholder investments into profits.

See our latest analysis for FOS Capital

How To Calculate Return On Equity?

ROE 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 FOS Capital is:

3.4% = AU$319k ÷ AU$9.4m (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2023).

The 'return' is the amount earned after tax over the last twelve months. One way to conceptualize this is that for each A$1 of shareholders' capital it has, the company made A$0.03 in profit.

What Has ROE Got To Do With Earnings Growth?

We have already established that ROE serves as an efficient profit-generating gauge for a company's future earnings. 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. Generally speaking, other things being equal, firms with a high return on equity and profit retention, have a higher growth rate than firms that don’t share these attributes.

FOS Capital's Earnings Growth And 3.4% ROE

It is hard to argue that FOS Capital's ROE is much good in and of itself. Not just that, even compared to the industry average of 14%, the company's ROE is entirely unremarkable. FOS Capital was still able to see a decent net income growth of 8.1% over the past five years. We reckon that there could be other factors at play here. Such as - high earnings retention or an efficient management in place.

As a next step, we compared FOS Capital's net income growth with the industry and were disappointed to see that the company's growth is lower than the industry average growth of 19% in the same period.

Earnings growth is an important metric to consider when valuing a stock. What investors need to determine next is if the expected earnings growth, or the lack of it, is already built into the share price. Doing so will help them establish if the stock's future looks promising or ominous. What is FOS worth today? The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether FOS is currently mispriced by the market.

Is FOS Capital Making Efficient Use Of Its Profits?

While the company did pay out a portion of its dividend in the past, it currently doesn't pay a regular dividend. We infer that the company has been reinvesting all of its profits to grow its business.

Conclusion

In total, it does look like FOS Capital has some positive aspects to its business. Namely, its respectable earnings growth, which it achieved due to it retaining most of its profits. However, given the low ROE, investors may not be benefitting from all that reinvestment after all. Up till now, we've only made a short study of the company's growth data. You can do your own research on FOS Capital and see how it has performed in the past by looking at this FREE detailed graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flows.

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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.