Market Shows Low Tolerance For NobleOak Life's Mixed Fundamentals

NobleOak Life (ASX:NOL) has had a rough week with its share price down 10%. It seems that the market might have completely ignored the positive aspects of the company's fundamentals and decided to weigh-in more on the negative aspects. Stock prices are usually driven by a company’s financial performance over the long term, and therefore we decided to pay more attention to the company's financial performance. Particularly, we will be paying attention to NobleOak Life's ROE today.

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.

View our latest analysis for NobleOak Life

How Do You Calculate Return On Equity?

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 NobleOak Life is:

1.5% = AU$1.7m ÷ AU$112m (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2022).

The 'return' is the income the business earned over the last year. Another way to think of that is that for every A$1 worth of equity, the company was able to earn A$0.02 in profit.

Why Is ROE Important For Earnings Growth?

So far, we've learned that ROE is a measure of a company's profitability. 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 everything else remains unchanged, the higher the ROE and profit retention, the higher the growth rate of a company compared to companies that don't necessarily bear these characteristics.

NobleOak Life's Earnings Growth And 1.5% ROE

As you can see, NobleOak Life's ROE looks pretty weak. Even when compared to the industry average of 6.5%, the ROE figure is pretty disappointing. Thus, the low net income growth of 3.7% seen by NobleOak Life over the past five years could probably be the result of it having a lower ROE.

As a next step, we compared NobleOak Life'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 8.1% in the same period.

Earnings growth is an important metric to consider when valuing a stock. 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. One good indicator of expected earnings growth is the P/E ratio which determines the price the market is willing to pay for a stock based on its earnings prospects. So, you may want to check if NobleOak Life is trading on a high P/E or a low P/E, relative to its industry.

Is NobleOak Life Making Efficient Use Of Its Profits?

NobleOak Life doesn't pay any dividend, meaning that potentially all of its profits are being reinvested in the business. However, this doesn't explain the low earnings growth the company has seen. So there could be some other explanation in that regard. For instance, the company's business may be deteriorating.

Summary

On the whole, we feel that the performance shown by NobleOak Life can be open to many interpretations. While the company does have a high rate of profit retention, its low rate of return is probably hampering its earnings growth. With that said, the latest industry analyst forecasts reveal that the company's earnings are expected to accelerate. To know more about the company's future earnings growth forecasts take a look at this free report on analyst forecasts for the company to find out more.

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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.