Recruit Holdings Co., Ltd.'s (TSE:6098) Stock's On An Uptrend: Are Strong Financials Guiding The Market?

Recruit Holdings (TSE:6098) has had a great run on the share market with its stock up by a significant 16% over the last three months. 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. In this article, we decided to focus on Recruit Holdings' ROE.

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 Recruit Holdings

How Is ROE Calculated?

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 Recruit Holdings is:

22% = JP¥363b ÷ JP¥1.6t (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2024).

The 'return' is the profit over the last twelve months. So, this means that for every ¥1 of its shareholder's investments, the company generates a profit of ¥0.22.

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. 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.

Recruit Holdings' Earnings Growth And 22% ROE

To begin with, Recruit Holdings has a pretty high ROE which is interesting. Secondly, even when compared to the industry average of 15% the company's ROE is quite impressive. Probably as a result of this, Recruit Holdings was able to see a decent net income growth of 18% over the last five years.

Next, on comparing with the industry net income growth, we found that Recruit Holdings' growth is quite high when compared to the industry average growth of 12% in the same period, which is great to see.

The basis for attaching value to a company is, to a great extent, tied to its earnings growth. 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. Has the market priced in the future outlook for 6098? You can find out in our latest intrinsic value infographic research report.

Is Recruit Holdings Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?

Recruit Holdings has a low three-year median payout ratio of 12%, meaning that the company retains the remaining 88% of its profits. This suggests that the management is reinvesting most of the profits to grow the business.

Additionally, Recruit Holdings has paid dividends over a period of at least ten years which means that the company is pretty serious about sharing its profits with shareholders.

Summary

Overall, we are quite pleased with Recruit Holdings' performance. 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 substantial growth in its earnings. Having said that, the company's earnings growth is expected to slow down, as forecasted in the current analyst estimates. 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.