Greentown Management Holdings Company Limited's (HKG:9979) Fundamentals Look Pretty Strong: Could The Market Be Wrong About The Stock?

Greentown Management Holdings (HKG:9979) has had a rough three months with its share price down 35%. But if you pay close attention, you might gather that its strong financials could mean that the stock could potentially see an increase in value in the long-term, given how markets usually reward companies with good financial health. In this article, we decided to focus on Greentown Management Holdings' ROE.

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. Put another way, it reveals the company's success at turning shareholder investments into profits.

View our latest analysis for Greentown Management Holdings

How Do You Calculate Return On Equity?

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 Greentown Management Holdings is:

24% = CN¥981m ÷ CN¥4.1b (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2023).

The 'return' is the income the business earned over the last year. So, this means that for every HK$1 of its shareholder's investments, the company generates a profit of HK$0.24.

What Is The Relationship Between ROE And Earnings Growth?

We have already established that ROE serves as an efficient profit-generating gauge for a company's future earnings. 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 all else is equal, companies that have both a higher return on equity and higher profit retention are usually the ones that have a higher growth rate when compared to companies that don't have the same features.

A Side By Side comparison of Greentown Management Holdings' Earnings Growth And 24% ROE

First thing first, we like that Greentown Management Holdings has an impressive ROE. Additionally, the company's ROE is higher compared to the industry average of 6.6% which is quite remarkable. Under the circumstances, Greentown Management Holdings' considerable five year net income growth of 25% was to be expected.

As a next step, we compared Greentown Management 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 1.4%.

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. 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 Greentown Management Holdings is trading on a high P/E or a low P/E, relative to its industry.

Is Greentown Management Holdings Making Efficient Use Of Its Profits?

Greentown Management Holdings' significant three-year median payout ratio of 64% (where it is retaining only 36% of its income) suggests that the company has been able to achieve a high growth in earnings despite returning most of its income to shareholders.

Moreover, Greentown Management Holdings is determined to keep sharing its profits with shareholders which we infer from its long history of three 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 79% over the next three years. However, Greentown Management Holdings' future ROE is expected to rise to 36% despite the expected increase in the company's payout ratio. We infer that there could be other factors that could be driving the anticipated growth in the company's ROE.

Conclusion

Overall, we are quite pleased with Greentown Management Holdings' performance. In particular, its high ROE is quite noteworthy and also the probable explanation behind its considerable earnings growth. Yet, the company is retaining a small portion of its profits. Which means that the company has been able to grow its earnings in spite of it, so that's not too bad. On studying current analyst estimates, we found that analysts expect the company to continue its recent growth streak. 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.