Infosys Limited's (NSE:INFY) Stock Has Seen Strong Momentum: Does That Call For Deeper Study Of Its Financial Prospects?

Infosys' (NSE:INFY) stock is up by a considerable 7.1% over the past month. 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. Particularly, we will be paying attention to Infosys' ROE today.

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.

See our latest analysis for Infosys

How Do You Calculate Return On Equity?

The formula for ROE is:

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

So, based on the above formula, the ROE for Infosys is:

30% = US$3.2b ÷ US$11b (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2024).

The 'return' refers to a company's earnings over the last year. One way to conceptualize this is that for each ₹1 of shareholders' capital it has, the company made ₹0.30 in profit.

What Has ROE Got To Do With Earnings Growth?

We have already established that ROE serves as an efficient profit-generating gauge for a company's future earnings. 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. Assuming everything else remains unchanged, the higher the ROE and profit retention, the higher the growth rate of a company compared to companies that don't necessarily bear these characteristics.

Infosys' Earnings Growth And 30% ROE

To begin with, Infosys has a pretty high ROE which is interesting. Additionally, the company's ROE is higher compared to the industry average of 13% which is quite remarkable. This likely paved the way for the modest 7.0% net income growth seen by Infosys over the past five years.

As a next step, we compared Infosys' net income growth with the industry and were disappointed to see that the company's growth is lower than the industry average growth of 25% in the same period.

Earnings growth is a huge factor in stock valuation. The investor should try to establish if the expected growth or decline in earnings, whichever the case may be, is priced in. Doing so will help them establish if the stock's future looks promising or ominous. Is Infosys fairly valued compared to other companies? These 3 valuation measures might help you decide.

Is Infosys Making Efficient Use Of Its Profits?

Infosys has a significant three-year median payout ratio of 58%, meaning that it is left with only 42% to reinvest into its business. This implies that the company has been able to achieve decent earnings growth despite returning most of its profits to shareholders.

Besides, Infosys has been paying dividends for at least ten years or more. This shows that the company is committed to sharing profits with its shareholders. Our latest analyst data shows that the future payout ratio of the company over the next three years is expected to be approximately 69%. Therefore, the company's future ROE is also not expected to change by much with analysts predicting an ROE of 31%.

Summary

Overall, we feel that Infosys certainly does have some positive factors to consider. Its earnings growth is decent, and the high ROE does contribute to that growth. However, investors could have benefitted even more from the high ROE, had the company been reinvesting more of its earnings. On studying current analyst estimates, we found that analysts expect the company to continue its recent growth streak. 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.