Korea Fuel-Tech Corporation's (KOSDAQ:123410) Stock Is Going Strong: Is the Market Following Fundamentals?

Korea Fuel-Tech's (KOSDAQ:123410) stock is up by a considerable 12% over the past 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 Korea Fuel-Tech's ROE today.

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 other words, it is a profitability ratio which measures the rate of return on the capital provided by the company's shareholders.

See our latest analysis for Korea Fuel-Tech

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 Korea Fuel-Tech is:

16% = ₩31b ÷ ₩201b (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2024).

The 'return' refers to a company's earnings over the last year. Another way to think of that is that for every ₩1 worth of equity, the company was able to earn ₩0.16 in profit.

What Has ROE Got To Do With Earnings Growth?

So far, we've learned that ROE is a measure of a company's profitability. Based on how much of its profits the company chooses to reinvest or "retain", we are then able to evaluate a company's future ability to generate profits. 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.

Korea Fuel-Tech's Earnings Growth And 16% ROE

To begin with, Korea Fuel-Tech seems to have a respectable ROE. On comparing with the average industry ROE of 8.4% the company's ROE looks pretty remarkable. This certainly adds some context to Korea Fuel-Tech's exceptional 37% net income growth seen over the past five years. We believe that there might also be other aspects that are positively influencing the company's earnings growth. Such as - high earnings retention or an efficient management in place.

We then compared Korea Fuel-Tech's net income growth with the industry and we're pleased to see that the company's growth figure is higher when compared with the industry which has a growth rate of 24% in the same 5-year 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. One good indicator of expected earnings growth is the P/E ratio which determines the price the market is willing to pay for a stock based on its earnings prospects. So, you may want to check if Korea Fuel-Tech is trading on a high P/E or a low P/E, relative to its industry.

Is Korea Fuel-Tech Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?

Korea Fuel-Tech's ' three-year median payout ratio is on the lower side at 11% implying that it is retaining a higher percentage (89%) of its profits. This suggests that the management is reinvesting most of the profits to grow the business as evidenced by the growth seen by the company.

Moreover, Korea Fuel-Tech is determined to keep sharing its profits with shareholders which we infer from its long history of five years of paying a dividend. Our latest analyst data shows that the future payout ratio of the company over the next three years is expected to be approximately 10.0%. Accordingly, forecasts suggest that Korea Fuel-Tech's future ROE will be 16% which is again, similar to the current ROE.

Conclusion

In total, we are pretty happy with Korea Fuel-Tech's performance. In particular, it's great to see that the company is investing heavily into its business and along with a high rate of return, that has resulted in a sizeable growth in its earnings. With that said, the latest industry analyst forecasts reveal that the company's earnings growth is expected to slow down. 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.