Quartix Holdings plc's (LON:QTX) Stock Has Shown A Decent Performance: Have Financials A Role To Play?

Quartix Holdings' (LON:QTX) stock up by 3.3% over the past month. As most would know, long-term fundamentals have a strong correlation with market price movements, so we decided to look at the company's key financial indicators today to determine if they have any role to play in the recent price movement. Specifically, we decided to study Quartix Holdings' ROE in this article.

Return on Equity or ROE is a test of how effectively a company is growing its value and managing investors’ money. Put another way, it reveals the company's success at turning shareholder investments into profits.

See our latest analysis for Quartix Holdings

How Is ROE Calculated?

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 Quartix Holdings is:

29% = UK£6.2m ÷ UK£21m (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 £0.29.

What Has ROE Got To Do With Earnings Growth?

So far, we've learned that ROE is a measure of a company's profitability. 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. 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.

Quartix Holdings' Earnings Growth And 29% ROE

First thing first, we like that Quartix Holdings has an impressive ROE. Additionally, the company's ROE is higher compared to the industry average of 8.5% which is quite remarkable. This probably laid the groundwork for Quartix Holdings' moderate 5.1% net income growth seen over the past five years.

We then compared Quartix Holdings' net income growth with the industry and found that the company's growth figure is lower than the average industry growth rate of 14% in the same period, which is a bit concerning.

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. 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 Quartix Holdings''s valuation, check out this gauge of its price-to-earnings ratio, as compared to its industry.

Is Quartix Holdings Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?

The high three-year median payout ratio of 51% (or a retention ratio of 49%) for Quartix Holdings suggests that the company's growth wasn't really hampered despite it returning most of its income to its shareholders.

Moreover, Quartix Holdings 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's future payout ratio is expected to rise to 105% over the next three years.

Summary

On the whole, we do feel that Quartix Holdings has some positive attributes. The company has grown its earnings moderately as previously discussed. Still, the high ROE could have been even more beneficial to investors had the company been reinvesting more of its profits. As highlighted earlier, the current reinvestment rate appears to be quite low. With that said, on studying the latest analyst forecasts, we found that while the company has seen growth in its past earnings, analysts expect its future earnings to shrink. To know more about the latest analysts predictions for the company, check out this visualization of analyst forecasts 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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