Could The Market Be Wrong About Siegfried Holding AG (VTX:SFZN) Given Its Attractive Financial Prospects?

Siegfried Holding (VTX:SFZN) has had a rough month with its share price down 6.5%. 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. Particularly, we will be paying attention to Siegfried Holding'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. Simply put, it is used to assess the profitability of a company in relation to its equity capital.

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How Do You Calculate Return On Equity?

The formula for return on equity is:

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

So, based on the above formula, the ROE for Siegfried Holding is:

16% = CHF160m ÷ CHF980m (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2024).

The 'return' is the amount earned after tax over the last twelve months. So, this means that for every CHF1 of its shareholder's investments, the company generates a profit of CHF0.16.

View our latest analysis for Siegfried Holding

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. 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.

Siegfried Holding's Earnings Growth And 16% ROE

To start with, Siegfried Holding's ROE looks acceptable. Especially when compared to the industry average of 7.7% the company's ROE looks pretty impressive. This probably laid the ground for Siegfried Holding's significant 22% net income growth seen over the past five years. We believe that there might also be other aspects that are positively influencing the company's earnings growth. Such as - high earnings retention or an efficient management in place.

As a next step, we compared Siegfried Holding's net income growth with the industry, and pleasingly, we found that the growth seen by the company is higher than the average industry growth of 11%.

The basis for attaching value to a company is, to a great extent, tied to its earnings growth. 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. Has the market priced in the future outlook for SFZN? You can find out in our latest intrinsic value infographic research report.

Is Siegfried Holding Making Efficient Use Of Its Profits?

Siegfried Holding's three-year median payout ratio to shareholders is 11%, which is quite low. This implies that the company is retaining 89% of its profits. This suggests that the management is reinvesting most of the profits to grow the business as evidenced by the growth seen by the company.

Moreover, Siegfried Holding is determined to keep sharing its profits with shareholders which we infer from its long history of paying a dividend for at least ten years. Our latest analyst data shows that the future payout ratio of the company over the next three years is expected to be approximately 9.1%. As a result, Siegfried Holding's ROE is not expected to change by much either, which we inferred from the analyst estimate of 16% for future ROE.

Conclusion

In total, we are pretty happy with Siegfried Holding's performance. Particularly, we like that the company is reinvesting heavily into its business, and at a high rate of return. Unsurprisingly, this has led to an impressive earnings growth. Having said that, the company's earnings growth is expected to slow down, as forecasted in the current analyst estimates. To know more about the latest analysts predictions for the company, check out this visualization of analyst forecasts 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.