Friend Co.,Ltd. (SHSE:605050) Stock's Been Sliding But Fundamentals Look Decent: Will The Market Correct The Share Price In The Future?

FriendLtd (SHSE:605050) has had a rough three months with its share price down 14%. However, stock prices are usually driven by a company’s financials over the long term, which in this case look pretty respectable. Particularly, we will be paying attention to FriendLtd'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.

Check out our latest analysis for FriendLtd

How Do You Calculate Return On Equity?

Return on equity 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 FriendLtd is:

9.5% = CN¥422m ÷ CN¥4.4b (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2024).

The 'return' is the income the business earned over the last year. That means that for every CN¥1 worth of shareholders' equity, the company generated CN¥0.10 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. 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 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.

A Side By Side comparison of FriendLtd's Earnings Growth And 9.5% ROE

When you first look at it, FriendLtd's ROE doesn't look that attractive. However, the fact that the its ROE is quite higher to the industry average of 7.4% doesn't go unnoticed by us. This probably goes some way in explaining FriendLtd's moderate 7.7% 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. So there might well be other reasons for the earnings to grow. E.g the company has a low payout ratio or could belong to a high growth industry.

We then compared FriendLtd's net income growth with the industry and found that the company's growth figure is lower than the average industry growth rate of 12% in the same 5-year period, which is a bit concerning.

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

Is FriendLtd Using Its Retained Earnings Effectively?

FriendLtd has a healthy combination of a moderate three-year median payout ratio of 43% (or a retention ratio of 57%) 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, FriendLtd has paid dividends over a period of three years which means that the company is pretty serious about sharing its profits with shareholders.

Summary

On the whole, we do feel that FriendLtd has some positive attributes. Particularly, its earnings have grown respectably as we saw earlier, which was likely achieved due to the company reinvesting most of its earnings at a decent rate of return, to grow its business. That being so, the latest analyst forecasts show that the company will continue to see an expansion in its earnings. 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.