Is The Market Rewarding Hebei Construction Group Corporation Limited (HKG:1727) With A Negative Sentiment As A Result Of Its Mixed Fundamentals?

With its stock down 84% over the past three months, it is easy to disregard Hebei Construction Group (HKG:1727). We, however decided to study the company's financials to determine if they have got anything to do with the price decline. Long-term fundamentals are usually what drive market outcomes, so it's worth paying close attention. Specifically, we decided to study Hebei Construction Group's ROE in this article.

Return on equity or ROE is an important factor to be considered by a shareholder because it tells them how effectively their capital is being reinvested. In short, ROE shows the profit each dollar generates with respect to its shareholder investments.

View our latest analysis for Hebei Construction Group

How Do You Calculate Return On Equity?

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 Hebei Construction Group is:

6.9% = CN¥404m ÷ CN¥5.9b (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2020).

The 'return' is the yearly profit. That means that for every HK$1 worth of shareholders' equity, the company generated HK$0.07 in profit.

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.

Hebei Construction Group's Earnings Growth And 6.9% ROE

At first glance, Hebei Construction Group's ROE doesn't look very promising. We then compared the company's ROE to the broader industry and were disappointed to see that the ROE is lower than the industry average of 10%. Given the circumstances, the significant decline in net income by 5.0% seen by Hebei Construction Group over the last five years is not surprising. However, there could also be other factors causing the earnings to decline. Such as - low earnings retention or poor allocation of capital.

That being said, we compared Hebei Construction Group's performance with the industry and were concerned when we found that while the company has shrunk its earnings, the industry has grown its earnings at a rate of 0.2% in the same period.

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. Is Hebei Construction Group fairly valued compared to other companies? These 3 valuation measures might help you decide.

Is Hebei Construction Group Making Efficient Use Of Its Profits?

Looking at its three-year median payout ratio of 45% (or a retention ratio of 55%) which is pretty normal, Hebei Construction Group's declining earnings is rather baffling as one would expect to see a fair bit of growth when a company is retaining a good portion of its profits. So there could be some other explanations in that regard. For instance, the company's business may be deteriorating.

Additionally, Hebei Construction Group started paying a dividend only recently. So it looks like the management may have perceived that shareholders favor dividends even though earnings have been in decline.

Summary

In total, we're a bit ambivalent about Hebei Construction Group's performance. Even though it appears to be retaining most of its profits, given the low ROE, investors may not be benefitting from all that reinvestment after all. The low earnings growth suggests our theory correct. Wrapping up, we would proceed with caution with this company and one way of doing that would be to look at the risk profile of the business. To know the 5 risks we have identified for Hebei Construction Group visit our risks dashboard for free.

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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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