Will Weakness in Shanghai Baolong Automotive Corporation's (SHSE:603197) Stock Prove Temporary Given Strong Fundamentals?

Shanghai Baolong Automotive (SHSE:603197) has had a rough three months with its share price down 13%. 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. Specifically, we decided to study Shanghai Baolong Automotive's ROE in this article.

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 simpler terms, it measures the profitability of a company in relation to shareholder's equity.

View our latest analysis for Shanghai Baolong Automotive

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 Shanghai Baolong Automotive is:

11% = CN¥354m ÷ CN¥3.3b (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2024).

The 'return' is the amount earned after tax over the last twelve months. That means that for every CN¥1 worth of shareholders' equity, the company generated CN¥0.11 in profit.

Why Is ROE Important For Earnings Growth?

We have already established that ROE serves as an efficient profit-generating gauge for a company's future earnings. Based on how much of its profits the company chooses to reinvest or "retain", we are then able to evaluate a company's future ability to generate profits. 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.

Shanghai Baolong Automotive's Earnings Growth And 11% ROE

On the face of it, Shanghai Baolong Automotive's ROE is not much to talk about. However, the fact that the its ROE is quite higher to the industry average of 8.1% doesn't go unnoticed by us. This probably goes some way in explaining Shanghai Baolong Automotive's moderate 19% growth over the past five years amongst other factors. Bear in mind, the company does have a moderately low ROE. It is just that the industry ROE is lower. Therefore, the growth in earnings could also be the result of other factors. Such as- high earnings retention or the company belonging to a high growth industry.

As a next step, we compared Shanghai Baolong Automotive'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 7.9%.

Earnings growth is an important metric to consider when valuing a stock. The investor should try to establish if the expected growth or decline in earnings, whichever the case may be, is priced in. This then helps them determine if the stock is placed for a bright or bleak future. What is 603197 worth today? The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether 603197 is currently mispriced by the market.

Is Shanghai Baolong Automotive Using Its Retained Earnings Effectively?

Shanghai Baolong Automotive has a healthy combination of a moderate three-year median payout ratio of 31% (or a retention ratio of 69%) and a respectable amount of growth in earnings as we saw above, meaning that the company has been making efficient use of its profits.

Additionally, Shanghai Baolong Automotive has paid dividends over a period of seven years which means that the company is pretty serious about sharing its profits with shareholders. Our latest analyst data shows that the future payout ratio of the company over the next three years is expected to be approximately 29%. However, Shanghai Baolong Automotive's ROE is predicted to rise to 18% despite there being no anticipated change in its payout ratio.

Conclusion

In total, we are pretty happy with Shanghai Baolong Automotive's performance. Specifically, we like that it has been reinvesting a high portion of its profits at a moderate rate of return, resulting in earnings expansion. Having said that, looking at the current analyst estimates, we found that the company's earnings are expected to gain momentum. 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.

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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.