Could The Market Be Wrong About Byhealth Co., Ltd (SZSE:300146) Given Its Attractive Financial Prospects?

Byhealth (SZSE:300146) has had a rough three months with its share price down 15%. However, stock prices are usually driven by a company’s financial performance over the long term, which in this case looks quite promising. Particularly, we will be paying attention to Byhealth's ROE today.

Return on Equity or ROE is a test of how effectively a company is growing its value and managing investors’ money. 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 Byhealth

How Is ROE Calculated?

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 Byhealth is:

11% = CN¥1.4b ÷ CN¥13b (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 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¥0.11 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. 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. 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.

Byhealth's Earnings Growth And 11% ROE

To start with, Byhealth's ROE looks acceptable. Even when compared to the industry average of 10% the company's ROE looks quite decent. Consequently, this likely laid the ground for the impressive net income growth of 22% seen over the past five years by Byhealth. We believe that there might also be other aspects that are positively influencing the company's earnings growth. For instance, the company has a low payout ratio or is being managed efficiently.

Next, on comparing with the industry net income growth, we found that Byhealth's growth is quite high when compared to the industry average growth of 9.8% in the same period, which is great to see.

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). By doing so, they will have an idea if the stock is headed into clear blue waters or if swampy waters await. If you're wondering about Byhealth's's valuation, check out this gauge of its price-to-earnings ratio, as compared to its industry.

Is Byhealth Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?

The high three-year median payout ratio of 66% (implying that it keeps only 34% of profits) for Byhealth suggests that the company's growth wasn't really hampered despite it returning most of the earnings to its shareholders.

Moreover, Byhealth 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. Based on the latest analysts' estimates, we found that the company's future payout ratio over the next three years is expected to hold steady at 68%. However, Byhealth's ROE is predicted to rise to 16% despite there being no anticipated change in its payout ratio.

Summary

On the whole, we feel that Byhealth's performance has been quite good. We are particularly impressed by the considerable earnings growth posted by the company, which was likely backed by its high ROE. While the company is paying out most of its earnings as dividends, it has been able to grow its earnings in spite of it, so that's probably a good sign. That being so, a study of the latest analyst forecasts show that the company is expected to see a slowdown in its future earnings growth. 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.