Is Anhui Expressway Company Limited's (HKG:995) Latest Stock Performance Being Led By Its Strong Fundamentals?

Anhui Expressway's (HKG:995) stock up by 8.5% over the past three months. Since the market usually pay for a company’s long-term financial health, we decided to study the company’s fundamentals to see if they could be influencing the market. In this article, we decided to focus on Anhui Expressway's 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. In simpler terms, it measures the profitability of a company in relation to shareholder's equity.

View our latest analysis for Anhui Expressway

How Is ROE Calculated?

The formula for ROE is:

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

So, based on the above formula, the ROE for Anhui Expressway is:

11% = CN¥1.5b ÷ CN¥14b (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2024).

The 'return' is the yearly profit. That means that for every HK$1 worth of shareholders' equity, the company generated HK$0.11 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.

Anhui Expressway's Earnings Growth And 11% ROE

To start with, Anhui Expressway's ROE looks acceptable. Further, the company's ROE compares quite favorably to the industry average of 7.9%. This probably laid the ground for Anhui Expressway's moderate 12% net income growth seen over the past five years.

As a next step, we compared Anhui Expressway'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 6.8%.

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. 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 Anhui Expressway is trading on a high P/E or a low P/E, relative to its industry.

Is Anhui Expressway Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?

While Anhui Expressway has a three-year median payout ratio of 60% (which means it retains 40% of profits), the company has still seen a fair bit of earnings growth in the past, meaning that its high payout ratio hasn't hampered its ability to grow.

Moreover, Anhui Expressway is determined to keep sharing its profits with shareholders which we infer from its long history of paying a dividend for at least ten years. Our latest analyst data shows that the future payout ratio of the company over the next three years is expected to be approximately 60%. Therefore, the company's future ROE is also not expected to change by much with analysts predicting an ROE of 12%.

Conclusion

Overall, we are quite pleased with Anhui Expressway's performance. We are particularly impressed by the considerable earnings growth posted by the company, which was likely backed by its high ROE. While the company is paying out most of its earnings as dividends, it has been able to grow its earnings in spite of it, so that's probably a good sign. Having said that, the company's earnings growth is expected to slow down, as forecasted in the current analyst estimates. 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.