Do Its Financials Have Any Role To Play In Driving Infosys Limited's (NSE:INFY) Stock Up Recently?

Most readers would already be aware that Infosys' (NSE:INFY) stock increased significantly by 11% over the past three months. We wonder if and what role the company's financials play in that price change as a company's long-term fundamentals usually dictate market outcomes. Specifically, we decided to study Infosys' ROE in this article.

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 simpler terms, it measures the profitability of a company in relation to shareholder's equity.

View our latest analysis for Infosys

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 Infosys is:

31% = US$2.9b ÷ US$9.4b (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2021).

The 'return' refers to a company's earnings over the last year. That means that for every ₹1 worth of shareholders' equity, the company generated ₹0.31 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. 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.

Infosys' Earnings Growth And 31% ROE

Firstly, we acknowledge that Infosys has a significantly high ROE. Additionally, the company's ROE is higher compared to the industry average of 11% which is quite remarkable. Despite this, Infosys' five year net income growth was quite low averaging at only 4.5%. This is generally not the case as when a company has a high rate of return it should usually also have a high earnings growth rate. We reckon that a low growth, when returns are quite high could be the result of certain circumstances like low earnings retention or or poor allocation of capital.

Next, on comparing with the industry net income growth, we found that Infosys' 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 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. Doing so will help them establish if the stock's future looks promising or ominous. If you're wondering about Infosys''s valuation, check out this gauge of its price-to-earnings ratio, as compared to its industry.

Is Infosys Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?

Despite having a normal three-year median payout ratio of 49% (or a retention ratio of 51% over the past three years, Infosys has seen very little growth in earnings as we saw above. Therefore, there might be some other reasons to explain the lack in that respect. For example, the business could be in decline.

Moreover, Infosys has been paying dividends for at least ten years or more suggesting that management must have perceived that the shareholders prefer dividends over earnings growth. Looking at the current analyst consensus data, we can see that the company's future payout ratio is expected to rise to 61% over the next three years. Regardless, the ROE is not expected to change much for the company despite the higher expected payout ratio.

Summary

In total, it does look like Infosys has some positive aspects to its business. Although, we are disappointed to see a lack of growth in earnings even in spite of a high ROE and and a high reinvestment rate. We believe that there might be some outside factors that could be having a negative impact on the business. That being so, the latest analyst forecasts show that the company will continue to see an expansion in its earnings. 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.