Is Aarti Drugs Limited's (NSE:AARTIDRUGS) Recent Stock Performance Tethered To Its Strong Fundamentals?

Aarti Drugs (NSE:AARTIDRUGS) has had a great run on the share market with its stock up by a significant 12% over the last week. 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 Aarti Drugs' ROE today.

Return on equity or ROE is a key measure used to assess how efficiently a company's management is utilizing the company's capital. Simply put, it is used to assess the profitability of a company in relation to its equity capital.

View our latest analysis for Aarti Drugs

How Do You Calculate Return On Equity?

The formula for return on equity is:

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

So, based on the above formula, the ROE for Aarti Drugs is:

15% = ₹1.8b ÷ ₹12b (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2023).

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

What Is The Relationship Between ROE And Earnings Growth?

We have already established that ROE serves as an efficient profit-generating gauge for a company's future earnings. 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. Assuming all else is equal, companies that have both a higher return on equity and higher profit retention are usually the ones that have a higher growth rate when compared to companies that don't have the same features.

Aarti Drugs' Earnings Growth And 15% ROE

To start with, Aarti Drugs' ROE looks acceptable. And on comparing with the industry, we found that the the average industry ROE is similar at 13%. Consequently, this likely laid the ground for the decent growth of 8.9% seen over the past five years by Aarti Drugs.

We then compared Aarti Drugs' net income growth with the industry and found that the company's growth figure is lower than the average industry growth rate of 15% in the same 5-year period, which is a bit concerning.

The basis for attaching value to a company is, to a great extent, tied to its earnings growth. 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. If you're wondering about Aarti Drugs''s valuation, check out this gauge of its price-to-earnings ratio, as compared to its industry.

Is Aarti Drugs Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?

Aarti Drugs' three-year median payout ratio to shareholders is 5.1% (implying that it retains 95% of its income), which is on the lower side, so it seems like the management is reinvesting profits heavily to grow its business.

Besides, Aarti Drugs has been paying dividends for at least ten years or more. This shows that the company is committed to sharing profits with its shareholders. Looking at the current analyst consensus data, we can see that the company's future payout ratio is expected to rise to 25% over the next three years. Still, forecasts suggest that Aarti Drugs' future ROE will rise to 19% even though the the company's payout ratio is expected to rise. We presume that there could some other characteristics of the business that could be driving the anticipated growth in the company's ROE.

Conclusion

On the whole, we feel that Aarti Drugs' performance has been quite good. Specifically, we like that the company is reinvesting a huge chunk of its profits at a high rate of return. This of course has caused the company to see a good amount of growth in its earnings. 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.