Kukdong Corporation's (KRX:005320) Stock On An Uptrend: Could Fundamentals Be Driving The Momentum?

Most readers would already be aware that Kukdong's (KRX:005320) stock increased significantly by 36% 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. In this article, we decided to focus on Kukdong's 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. 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 Kukdong

How To 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 Kukdong is:

20% = ₩21b ÷ ₩102b (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2020).

The 'return' is the yearly profit. So, this means that for every ₩1 of its shareholder's investments, the company generates a profit of ₩0.20.

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. 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. 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.

Kukdong's Earnings Growth And 20% ROE

To begin with, Kukdong seems to have a respectable ROE. Further, the company's ROE compares quite favorably to the industry average of 6.3%. Needless to say, we are quite surprised to see that Kukdong's net income shrunk at a rate of 5.8% over the past five years. Based on this, we feel that there might be other reasons which haven't been discussed so far in this article that could be hampering the company's growth. These include low earnings retention or poor allocation of capital.

However, when we compared Kukdong's growth with the industry we found that while the company's earnings have been shrinking, the industry has seen an earnings growth of 6.0% in the same period. This is quite worrisome.

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 Kukdong fairly valued compared to other companies? These 3 valuation measures might help you decide.

Is Kukdong Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?

Conclusion

Overall, we feel that Kukdong certainly does have some positive factors to consider. 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. While we won't completely dismiss the company, what we would do, is try to ascertain how risky the business is to make a more informed decision around the company. To know the 4 risks we have identified for Kukdong visit our risks dashboard for free.

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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. 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.
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