Can Financials Drive Capinfo Company Limited's (HKG:1075) Stock Price Higher?

It is easy to overlook Capinfo's (HKG:1075) given its unimpressive and roughly flat price performance over the past week. However, attentive investors would probably give more consideration to the stock as the company's fundamentals could add more to the story, given how long-term financials are usually what drive market prices. Particularly, we will be paying attention to Capinfo's ROE today.

Return on Equity or ROE is a test of how effectively a company is growing its value and managing investors’ money. In short, ROE shows the profit each dollar generates with respect to its shareholder investments.

Check out our latest analysis for Capinfo

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 Capinfo is:

12% = CN¥132m ÷ CN¥1.1b (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2020).

The 'return' is the amount earned after tax over the last twelve months. One way to conceptualize this is that for each HK$1 of shareholders' capital it has, the company made HK$0.12 in profit.

What Has ROE Got To Do With 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.

Capinfo's Earnings Growth And 12% ROE

To start with, Capinfo's ROE looks acceptable. Further, the company's ROE is similar to the industry average of 11%. Despite the moderate return on equity, Capinfo has posted a net income growth of 3.6% over the past five years. So, there could be some other factors at play that could be impacting the company's growth. For instance, the company pays out a huge portion of its earnings as dividends, or is faced with competitive pressures.

As a next step, we compared Capinfo's net income growth with the industry and were disappointed to see that the company's growth is lower than the industry average growth of 9.7% in the same period.

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. Doing so will help them establish if the stock's future looks promising or ominous. Is Capinfo fairly valued compared to other companies? These 3 valuation measures might help you decide.

Is Capinfo Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?

Despite having a moderate three-year median payout ratio of 45% (implying that the company retains the remaining 55% of its income), Capinfo's earnings growth was quite low. Therefore, there might be some other reasons to explain the lack in that respect. For example, the business could be in decline.

Additionally, Capinfo has paid dividends over a period of at least ten years, which means that the company's management is determined to pay dividends even if it means little to no earnings growth.

Conclusion

Overall, we feel that Capinfo certainly does have some positive factors to consider. However, given the high ROE and high profit retention, we would expect the company to be delivering strong earnings growth, but that isn't the case here. This suggests that there might be some external threat to the business, that's hampering its growth. While we won't completely dismiss the company, what we would do, is try to ascertain how risky the business is to make a more informed decision around the company. To know the 1 risk we have identified for Capinfo 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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