Accent Group Limited's (ASX:AX1) Stock Has Seen Strong Momentum: Does That Call For Deeper Study Of Its Financial Prospects?

Accent Group (ASX:AX1) has had a great run on the share market with its stock up by a significant 26% over the last three months. As most would know, fundamentals are what usually guide market price movements over the long-term, so we decided to look at the company's key financial indicators today to determine if they have any role to play in the recent price movement. Specifically, we decided to study Accent Group's ROE in this article.

Return on equity or ROE is a key measure used to assess how efficiently a company's management is utilizing the company's capital. In short, ROE shows the profit each dollar generates with respect to its shareholder investments.

View our latest analysis for Accent Group

How Do You 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 Accent Group is:

16% = AU$75m ÷ AU$475m (Based on the trailing twelve months to January 2023).

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$0.16 in profit.

Why Is ROE Important For Earnings Growth?

So far, we've learned that ROE is a measure of a company's profitability. Depending on how much of these profits the company reinvests or "retains", and how effectively it does so, we are then able to assess a company’s earnings growth potential. 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.

Accent Group's Earnings Growth And 16% ROE

To begin with, Accent Group seems to have a respectable ROE. Yet, the fact that the company's ROE is lower than the industry average of 21% does temper our expectations. Accent Group was still able to see a decent net income growth of 5.1% 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. Bear in mind, the company does have a respectable level of ROE. It is just that the industry ROE is higher. So this also provides some context to the earnings growth seen by the company.

Next, on comparing with the industry net income growth, we found that Accent Group's reported growth was lower than the industry growth of 23% in the same period, which is not something we like to see.

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. This then helps them determine if the stock is placed for a bright or bleak future. Is Accent Group fairly valued compared to other companies? These 3 valuation measures might help you decide.

Is Accent Group Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?

Accent Group has a significant three-year median payout ratio of 89%, meaning that it is left with only 11% to reinvest into its business. This implies that the company has been able to achieve decent earnings growth despite returning most of its profits to shareholders.

Besides, Accent Group has been paying dividends for at least ten years or more. This shows that the company is committed to sharing profits with its shareholders. Our latest analyst data shows that the future payout ratio of the company over the next three years is expected to be approximately 80%. Still, forecasts suggest that Accent Group's future ROE will rise to 20% even though the the company's payout ratio is not expected to change by much.

Conclusion

In total, it does look like Accent Group has some positive aspects to its business. True, the company has posted a respectable growth in earnings. However, the earnings growth number could have been even higher, had the company been reinvesting more of its earnings and paying out less dividends. Having said that, the company's earnings growth is expected to slow down, as forecasted in the current analyst estimates. 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.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.

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.