K.M. Sugar Mills Limited's (NSE:KMSUGAR) Financials Are Too Obscure To Link With Current Share Price Momentum: What's In Store For the Stock?

K.M. Sugar Mills (NSE:KMSUGAR) has had a great run on the share market with its stock up by a significant 15% over the last week. However, we wonder if the company's inconsistent financials would have any adverse impact on the current share price momentum. Specifically, we decided to study K.M. Sugar Mills' ROE in this article.

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. Simply put, it is used to assess the profitability of a company in relation to its equity capital.

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How To Calculate Return On Equity?

Return on equity 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 K.M. Sugar Mills is:

10% = ₹322m ÷ ₹3.2b (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2024).

The 'return' is the yearly profit. So, this means that for every ₹1 of its shareholder's investments, the company generates a profit of ₹0.10.

Check out our latest analysis for K.M. Sugar Mills

Why Is ROE Important For Earnings Growth?

So far, we've learned that ROE is a measure of a company's profitability. Depending on how much of these profits the company reinvests or "retains", and how effectively it does so, we are then able to assess a company’s earnings growth potential. 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.

A Side By Side comparison of K.M. Sugar Mills' Earnings Growth And 10% ROE

On the face of it, K.M. Sugar Mills' ROE is not much to talk about. Yet, a closer study shows that the company's ROE is similar to the industry average of 10%. Having said that, K.M. Sugar Mills' net income growth over the past five years is more or less flat. Remember, the company's ROE is not particularly great to begin with. So that could also be one of the reasons behind the company's flat growth in earnings.

As a next step, we compared K.M. Sugar Mills' net income growth with the industry and were disappointed to see that the company's growth is lower than the industry average growth of 17% in the same period.

Earnings growth is an important metric to consider when valuing a stock. 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 K.M. Sugar Mills is trading on a high P/E or a low P/E, relative to its industry.

Is K.M. Sugar Mills Using Its Retained Earnings Effectively?

K.M. Sugar Mills doesn't pay any regular dividends, meaning that potentially all of its profits are being reinvested in the business. However, this doesn't explain why the company hasn't seen any growth. It looks like there might be some other reasons to explain the lack in that respect. For example, the business could be in decline.

Conclusion

In total, we're a bit ambivalent about K.M. Sugar Mills' performance. While the company does have a high rate of reinvestment, the low ROE means that all that reinvestment is not reaping any benefit to its investors, and moreover, its having a negative impact on the earnings growth. Until now, we have only just grazed the surface of the company's past performance by looking at the company's fundamentals. You can do your own research on K.M. Sugar Mills and see how it has performed in the past by looking at this FREE detailed graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flows.

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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.