Is Sino Biopharmaceutical Limited's (HKG:1177) Stock's Recent Performance Being Led By Its Attractive Financial Prospects?

Sino Biopharmaceutical (HKG:1177) has had a great run on the share market with its stock up by a significant 12% over the last month. Given the company's impressive performance, we decided to study its financial indicators more closely as a company's financial health over the long-term usually dictates market outcomes. Particularly, we will be paying attention to Sino Biopharmaceutical's ROE today.

ROE or return on equity is a useful tool to assess how effectively a company can generate returns on the investment it received from its shareholders. Put another way, it reveals the company's success at turning shareholder investments into profits.

View our latest analysis for Sino Biopharmaceutical

How Is ROE Calculated?

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 Sino Biopharmaceutical is:

12% = CN¥4.7b ÷ CN¥40b (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2019).

The 'return' is the profit over the last twelve months. Another way to think of that is that for every HK$1 worth of equity, the company was able to earn HK$0.12 in profit.

What Is The Relationship Between ROE And Earnings Growth?

Thus far, we have learnt that ROE measures how efficiently a company is generating its profits. 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. Generally speaking, other things being equal, firms with a high return on equity and profit retention, have a higher growth rate than firms that don’t share these attributes.

Sino Biopharmaceutical's Earnings Growth And 12% ROE

At first glance, Sino Biopharmaceutical seems to have a decent ROE. Further, the company's ROE is similar to the industry average of 11%. This certainly adds some context to Sino Biopharmaceutical's exceptional 42% net income growth seen over the past five years. However, there could also be other drivers behind this growth. Such as - high earnings retention or an efficient management in place.

As a next step, we compared Sino Biopharmaceutical's 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 15%.

Earnings growth is an important metric to consider when valuing a stock. What investors need to determine next is if the expected earnings growth, or the lack of it, is already built into the share price. Doing so will help them establish if the stock's future looks promising or ominous. What is 1177 worth today? The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether 1177 is currently mispriced by the market.

Is Sino Biopharmaceutical Making Efficient Use Of Its Profits?

Sino Biopharmaceutical's ' three-year median payout ratio is on the lower side at 22% implying that it is retaining a higher percentage (78%) of its profits. So it seems like the management is reinvesting profits heavily to grow its business and this reflects in its earnings growth number.

Additionally, Sino Biopharmaceutical has paid dividends over a period of at least ten years which means that the company is pretty serious about sharing its profits with shareholders. Upon studying the latest analysts' consensus data, we found that the company is expected to keep paying out approximately 20% 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 12%.

Summary

Overall, we are quite pleased with Sino Biopharmaceutical's performance. Particularly, we like that the company is reinvesting heavily into its business, and at a high rate of return. Unsurprisingly, this has led to an impressive earnings growth. That being so, a study of the latest analyst forecasts show that the company is expected to see a slowdown in its future earnings growth. To know more about the company's future earnings growth forecasts take a look at this free report on analyst forecasts for the company to find out more.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. 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. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.

We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.