Is Neogen Chemicals Limited's(NSE:NEOGEN) Recent Stock Performance Tethered To Its Strong Fundamentals?

Most readers would already be aware that Neogen Chemicals' (NSE:NEOGEN) stock increased significantly by 22% over the past month. Since the market usually pay for a company’s long-term fundamentals, we decided to study the company’s key performance indicators to see if they could be influencing the market. Particularly, we will be paying attention to Neogen Chemicals' 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.

See our latest analysis for Neogen Chemicals

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 Neogen Chemicals is:

17% = ₹293m ÷ ₹1.7b (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2020).

The 'return' is the profit over the last twelve months. Another way to think of that is that for every ₹1 worth of equity, the company was able to earn ₹0.17 in profit.

What Has ROE Got To Do With Earnings Growth?

Thus far, we have learned that ROE measures how efficiently a company is generating its profits. 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.

Neogen Chemicals' Earnings Growth And 17% ROE

To start with, Neogen Chemicals' ROE looks acceptable. On comparing with the average industry ROE of 13% the company's ROE looks pretty remarkable. Probably as a result of this, Neogen Chemicals was able to see an impressive net income growth of 28% over the last five years. We believe that there might also be other aspects that are positively influencing the company's earnings growth. For instance, the company has a low payout ratio or is being managed efficiently.

As a next step, we compared Neogen Chemicals' 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 14%.

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. This then helps them determine if the stock is placed for a bright or bleak future. Is Neogen Chemicals fairly valued compared to other companies? These 3 valuation measures might help you decide.

Is Neogen Chemicals Making Efficient Use Of Its Profits?

Neogen Chemicals has a really low three-year median payout ratio of 15%, meaning that it has the remaining 85% left over to reinvest into its business. This suggests that the management is reinvesting most of the profits to grow the business as evidenced by the growth seen by the company.

Along with seeing a growth in earnings, Neogen Chemicals only recently started paying dividends. Its quite possible that the company was looking to impress its shareholders. Our latest analyst data shows that the future payout ratio of the company is expected to drop to 11% over the next three years. The fact that the company's ROE is expected to rise to 25% over the same period is explained by the drop in the payout ratio.

Conclusion

Overall, we are quite pleased with Neogen Chemicals' 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. 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 company's future earnings growth forecasts take a look at this free report on analyst forecasts for the company to find out more.

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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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