Steppe Cement Ltd.'s (LON:STCM) Stock On An Uptrend: Could Fundamentals Be Driving The Momentum?

Most readers would already be aware that Steppe Cement's (LON:STCM) stock increased significantly by 36% over the past three months. We wonder if and what role the company's financials play in that price change as a company's long-term fundamentals usually dictate market outcomes. In this article, we decided to focus on Steppe Cement's ROE.

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.

Check out our latest analysis for Steppe Cement

How To 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 Steppe Cement is:

17% = US$11m ÷ US$63m (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2020).

The 'return' refers to a company's earnings over the last year. So, this means that for every £1 of its shareholder's investments, the company generates a profit of £0.17.

What Is The Relationship Between ROE And Earnings Growth?

So far, we've learned that ROE is a measure of a company's profitability. 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. 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 Steppe Cement's Earnings Growth And 17% ROE

To begin with, Steppe Cement seems to have a respectable ROE. Especially when compared to the industry average of 9.2% the company's ROE looks pretty impressive. This probably laid the ground for Steppe Cement's significant 71% net income growth seen over the past five years. We reckon that there could also be other factors at play here. 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 Steppe Cement's growth is quite high when compared to the industry average growth of 28% in the same period, which is great to see.

The basis for attaching value to a company is, to a great extent, tied to its earnings growth. The investor should try to establish if the expected growth or decline in earnings, whichever the case may be, is priced in. Doing so will help them establish if the stock's future looks promising or ominous. One good indicator of expected earnings growth is the P/E ratio which determines the price the market is willing to pay for a stock based on its earnings prospects. So, you may want to check if Steppe Cement is trading on a high P/E or a low P/E, relative to its industry.

Is Steppe Cement Making Efficient Use Of Its Profits?

The high three-year median payout ratio of 92% (implying that it keeps only 7.6% of profits) for Steppe Cement suggests that the company's growth wasn't really hampered despite it returning most of the earnings to its shareholders.

Moreover, Steppe Cement is determined to keep sharing its profits with shareholders which we infer from its long history of six years of paying a dividend. Upon studying the latest analysts' consensus data, we found that the company is expected to keep paying out approximately 88% of its profits over the next three years. Therefore, the company's future ROE is also not expected to change by much with analysts predicting an ROE of 15%.

Summary

In total, it does look like Steppe Cement has some positive aspects to its business. Specifically, its high ROE which likely led to the growth in earnings. Bear in mind, the company reinvests little to none of its profits, which means that investors aren't necessarily reaping the full benefits of the high rate of return. Having said that, the company's earnings growth is expected to slow down, as forecasted in the current analyst estimates. 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. 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.
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