Orient Abrasives Limited's (NSE:ORIENTABRA) Financials Are Too Obscure To Link With Current Share Price Momentum: What's In Store For the Stock?

Orient Abrasives (NSE:ORIENTABRA) has had a great run on the share market with its stock up by a significant 16% over the last three months. 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 Orient Abrasives' 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. In simpler terms, it measures the profitability of a company in relation to shareholder's equity.

Check out our latest analysis for Orient Abrasives

How To Calculate Return On Equity?

ROE 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 Orient Abrasives is:

5.5% = ₹131m ÷ ₹2.4b (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2020).

The 'return' refers to a company's earnings over the last year. So, this means that for every ₹1 of its shareholder's investments, the company generates a profit of ₹0.06.

Why Is ROE Important For Earnings Growth?

So far, we've learned that ROE is a measure of a company's profitability. 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. 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.

Orient Abrasives' Earnings Growth And 5.5% ROE

As you can see, Orient Abrasives' ROE looks pretty weak. Even when compared to the industry average of 8.1%, the ROE figure is pretty disappointing. Therefore, Orient Abrasives' flat earnings over the past five years can possibly be explained by the low ROE amongst other factors.

Next, on comparing with the industry net income growth, we found that Orient Abrasives' reported growth was lower than the industry growth of 12% in the same period, 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. Is Orient Abrasives fairly valued compared to other companies? These 3 valuation measures might help you decide.

Is Orient Abrasives Using Its Retained Earnings Effectively?

Orient Abrasives' low three-year median payout ratio of 18%, (meaning the company retains82% of profits) should mean that the company is retaining most of its earnings and consequently, should see higher growth than it has reported.

In addition, Orient Abrasives has been paying dividends over a period of at least ten years suggesting that keeping up dividend payments is way more important to the management even if it comes at the cost of business growth.

Conclusion

In total, we're a bit ambivalent about Orient Abrasives' 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 Orient Abrasives and see how it has performed in the past by looking at this FREE detailed graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flows.

If you decide to trade Orient Abrasives, use the lowest-cost* platform that is rated #1 Overall by Barron’s, Interactive Brokers. Trade stocks, options, futures, forex, bonds and funds on 135 markets, all from a single integrated account. Promoted

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.
^*Interactive Brokers Rated Lowest Cost Broker by StockBrokers.com Annual Online Review 2020

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.