Has L.K. Technology Holdings Limited's (HKG:558) Impressive Stock Performance Got Anything to Do With Its Fundamentals?

L.K. Technology Holdings (HKG:558) has had a great run on the share market with its stock up by a significant 30% over the last three months. As most would know, fundamentals are what usually guide market price movements over the long-term, 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. Particularly, we will be paying attention to L.K. Technology Holdings' 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.

This technology could replace computers: discover the 20 stocks are working to make quantum computing a reality.

How Is ROE Calculated?

The formula for return on equity is:

Return on Equity = Net Profit (from continuing operations) ÷ Shareholders' Equity

So, based on the above formula, the ROE for L.K. Technology Holdings is:

9.8% = HK$403m ÷ HK$4.1b (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2025).

The 'return' is the yearly profit. One way to conceptualize this is that for each HK$1 of shareholders' capital it has, the company made HK$0.10 in profit.

See our latest analysis for L.K. Technology Holdings

What Has ROE Got To Do With Earnings Growth?

So far, we've learned that ROE is a measure of a company's profitability. 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 L.K. Technology Holdings' Earnings Growth And 9.8% ROE

At first glance, L.K. Technology Holdings' ROE doesn't look very promising. However, given that the company's ROE is similar to the average industry ROE of 8.8%, we may spare it some thought. Even so, L.K. Technology Holdings has shown a fairly decent growth in its net income which grew at a rate of 14%. Taking into consideration that the ROE is not particularly high, we reckon that there could also be other factors at play which could be influencing the company's growth. For example, it is possible that the company's management has made some good strategic decisions, or that the company has a low payout ratio.

As a next step, we compared L.K. Technology Holdings' net income growth with the industry, and pleasingly, we found that the growth seen by the company is higher than the average industry growth of 7.6%.

Earnings growth is an important metric to consider when valuing a stock. 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 L.K. Technology Holdings''s valuation, check out this gauge of its price-to-earnings ratio, as compared to its industry.

Is L.K. Technology Holdings Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?

L.K. Technology Holdings has a three-year median payout ratio of 26%, which implies that it retains the remaining 74% of its profits. This suggests that its dividend is well covered, and given the decent growth seen by the company, it looks like management is reinvesting its earnings efficiently.

Moreover, L.K. Technology Holdings is determined to keep sharing its profits with shareholders which we infer from its long history of nine years of paying a dividend. Looking at the current analyst consensus data, we can see that the company's future payout ratio is expected to rise to 31% over the next three years. Still, forecasts suggest that L.K. Technology Holdings' future ROE will rise to 18% even though the the company's payout ratio is expected to rise. We presume that there could some other characteristics of the business that could be driving the anticipated growth in the company's ROE.

Conclusion

On the whole, we do feel that L.K. Technology Holdings has some positive attributes. With a high rate of reinvestment, albeit at a low ROE, the company has managed to see a considerable growth in its earnings. We also studied the latest analyst forecasts and found that the company's earnings growth is expected be similar to its current growth rate. 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.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.

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.