Declining Stock and Solid Fundamentals: Is The Market Wrong About V-Guard Industries Limited (NSE:VGUARD)?

V-Guard Industries (NSE:VGUARD) has had a rough month with its share price down 12%. 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 V-Guard Industries' 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 other words, it is a profitability ratio which measures the rate of return on the capital provided by the company's shareholders.

See our latest analysis for V-Guard Industries

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 V-Guard Industries is:

15% = ₹3.0b ÷ ₹19b (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2024).

The 'return' is the profit over the last twelve months. That means that for every ₹1 worth of shareholders' equity, the company generated ₹0.15 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. 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.

V-Guard Industries' Earnings Growth And 15% ROE

To start with, V-Guard Industries' ROE looks acceptable. Even when compared to the industry average of 13% the company's ROE looks quite decent. This probably goes some way in explaining V-Guard Industries' moderate 8.5% growth over the past five years amongst other factors.

Next, on comparing with the industry net income growth, we found that V-Guard Industries' reported growth was lower than the industry growth of 32% over the last few years, which is not something we like to see.

Earnings growth is a huge factor in stock valuation. What investors need to determine next is if the expected earnings growth, or the lack of it, is already built into the share price. 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 V-Guard Industries''s valuation, check out this gauge of its price-to-earnings ratio, as compared to its industry.

Is V-Guard Industries Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?

V-Guard Industries has a low three-year median payout ratio of 25%, meaning that the company retains the remaining 75% of its profits. This suggests that the management is reinvesting most of the profits to grow the business.

Moreover, V-Guard Industries 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. Upon studying the latest analysts' consensus data, we found that the company is expected to keep paying out approximately 21% of its profits over the next three years. Accordingly, forecasts suggest that V-Guard Industries' future ROE will be 18% which is again, similar to the current ROE.

Summary

On the whole, we feel that V-Guard Industries' performance has been quite good. Particularly, we like that the company is reinvesting heavily into its business, and at a high rate of return. As a result, the decent growth in its earnings is not surprising. Having said that, looking at the current analyst estimates, we found that the company's earnings are expected to gain momentum. To know more about the latest analysts predictions for the company, check out this visualization of analyst forecasts 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.