Anam Electronics Co.,Ltd.'s (KRX:008700) Financials Are Too Obscure To Link With Current Share Price Momentum: What's In Store For the Stock?

Anam ElectronicsLtd (KRX:008700) has had a great run on the share market with its stock up by a significant 34% over the last three months. However, we decided to pay attention to the company's fundamentals which don't appear to give a clear sign about the company's financial health. Specifically, we decided to study Anam ElectronicsLtd's ROE in this article.

Return on Equity or ROE is a test of how effectively a company is growing its value and managing investors’ money. Simply put, it is used to assess the profitability of a company in relation to its equity capital.

View our latest analysis for Anam ElectronicsLtd

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 Anam ElectronicsLtd is:

6.5% = ₩4.1b ÷ ₩63b (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2020).

The 'return' is the yearly profit. That means that for every ₩1 worth of shareholders' equity, the company generated ₩0.06 in profit.

Why Is ROE Important For Earnings Growth?

We have already established that ROE serves as an efficient profit-generating gauge for a company's future earnings. 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.

Anam ElectronicsLtd's Earnings Growth And 6.5% ROE

At first glance, Anam ElectronicsLtd's ROE doesn't look very promising. However, given that the company's ROE is similar to the average industry ROE of 7.1%, we may spare it some thought. But Anam ElectronicsLtd saw a five year net income decline of 41% over the past five years. Remember, the company's ROE is a bit low to begin with. Hence, this goes some way in explaining the shrinking earnings.

Furthermore, even when compared to the industry, which has been shrinking its earnings at a rate 3.9% in the same period, we found that Anam ElectronicsLtd's performance is pretty disappointing, as it suggests that the company has been shrunk its earnings at a rate faster than the industry.

Earnings growth is an important metric to consider when valuing a stock. 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. If you're wondering about Anam ElectronicsLtd's's valuation, check out this gauge of its price-to-earnings ratio, as compared to its industry.

Is Anam ElectronicsLtd Making Efficient Use Of Its Profits?

Anam ElectronicsLtd doesn't pay any dividend, meaning that potentially all of its profits are being reinvested in the business, which doesn't explain why the company's earnings have shrunk if it is retaining all of its profits. So there might be other factors at play here which could potentially be hampering growth. For example, the business has faced some headwinds.

Conclusion

On the whole, we feel that the performance shown by Anam ElectronicsLtd can be open to many interpretations. While the company does have a high rate of reinvestment, the low ROE means that all that reinvestment is not reaping any benefit to its investors, and moreover, its having a negative impact on the earnings growth. Wrapping up, we would proceed with caution with this company and one way of doing that would be to look at the risk profile of the business. You can see the 2 risks we have identified for Anam ElectronicsLtd by visiting our risks dashboard for free on our platform here.

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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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