Hunan Zhongke Electric Co., Ltd.'s (SZSE:300035) Financials Are Too Obscure To Link With Current Share Price Momentum: What's In Store For the Stock?

Most readers would already be aware that Hunan Zhongke Electric's (SZSE:300035) stock increased significantly by 24% over the past month. However, we decided to pay attention to the company's fundamentals which don't appear to give a clear sign about the company's financial health. Particularly, we will be paying attention to Hunan Zhongke Electric's ROE today.

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 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 Hunan Zhongke Electric

How Is ROE Calculated?

The formula for ROE is:

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

So, based on the above formula, the ROE for Hunan Zhongke Electric is:

5.6% = CN¥282m ÷ CN¥5.1b (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2024).

The 'return' is the income the business earned over the last year. One way to conceptualize this is that for each CN¥1 of shareholders' capital it has, the company made CN¥0.06 in profit.

Why Is ROE Important For Earnings Growth?

Thus far, we have learned that ROE measures how efficiently a company is generating its profits. 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 all else is equal, companies that have both a higher return on equity and higher profit retention are usually the ones that have a higher growth rate when compared to companies that don't have the same features.

Hunan Zhongke Electric's Earnings Growth And 5.6% ROE

On the face of it, Hunan Zhongke Electric's ROE is not much to talk about. Yet, a closer study shows that the company's ROE is similar to the industry average of 7.0%. Still, Hunan Zhongke Electric has seen a flat net income growth over the past five years. Bear in mind, the company's ROE is not very high. So that could also be one of the reasons behind the company's flat growth in earnings.

Next, on comparing with the industry net income growth, we found that the industry grew its earnings by 8.7% over the last few years.

Earnings growth is a huge factor in stock valuation. 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. Is 300035 fairly valued? This infographic on the company's intrinsic value has everything you need to know.

Is Hunan Zhongke Electric Making Efficient Use Of Its Profits?

Hunan Zhongke Electric has a low three-year median payout ratio of 24% (or a retention ratio of 76%) but the negligible earnings growth number doesn't reflect this as high growth usually follows high profit retention.

In addition, Hunan Zhongke Electric has been paying dividends over a period of at least ten years suggesting that keeping up dividend payments is way more important to the management even if it comes at the cost of business growth.

Summary

On the whole, we feel that the performance shown by Hunan Zhongke Electric can be open to many interpretations. While the company does have a high rate of reinvestment, the low ROE means that all that reinvestment is not reaping any benefit to its investors, and moreover, its having a negative impact on the earnings growth. Having said that, looking at current analyst estimates, we found that the company's earnings growth rate is expected to see a huge improvement. 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.