Netmarble Corporation's (KRX:251270) Financials Are Too Obscure To Link With Current Share Price Momentum: What's In Store For the Stock?

Most readers would already be aware that Netmarble's (KRX:251270) stock increased significantly by 49% over the past three months. However, we wonder if the company's inconsistent financials would have any adverse impact on the current share price momentum. Specifically, we decided to study Netmarble'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. In other words, it is a profitability ratio which measures the rate of return on the capital provided by the company's shareholders.

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How Is ROE Calculated?

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 Netmarble is:

1.7% = ₩93b ÷ ₩5.5t (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2025).

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 ₩0.02 in profit.

View our latest analysis for Netmarble

What Is The Relationship Between ROE And 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 all else is equal, companies that have both a higher return on equity and higher profit retention are usually the ones that have a higher growth rate when compared to companies that don't have the same features.

Netmarble's Earnings Growth And 1.7% ROE

It is hard to argue that Netmarble's ROE is much good in and of itself. Not just that, even compared to the industry average of 9.9%, the company's ROE is entirely unremarkable. Given the circumstances, the significant decline in net income by 38% seen by Netmarble over the last five years is not surprising. We reckon that there could also be other factors at play here. For example, the business has allocated capital poorly, or that the company has a very high payout ratio.

So, as a next step, we compared Netmarble's performance against the industry and were disappointed to discover that while the company has been shrinking its earnings, the industry has been growing its earnings at a rate of 5.6% over the last few years.

Earnings growth is an important metric to consider when valuing a stock. What investors need to determine next is if the expected earnings growth, or the lack of it, is already built into the share price. Doing so will help them establish if the stock's future looks promising or ominous. Has the market priced in the future outlook for A251270? You can find out in our latest intrinsic value infographic research report.

Is Netmarble Making Efficient Use Of Its Profits?

Netmarble doesn't pay any regular dividends, meaning that the company is keeping all of its profits, which makes us wonder why it is retaining its earnings if it can't use them to grow its business. So there might be other factors at play here which could potentially be hampering growth. For example, the business has faced some headwinds.

Conclusion

In total, we're a bit ambivalent about Netmarble's performance. While the company does have a high rate of profit retention, its low rate of return is probably hampering its earnings growth. With that said, we studied the latest analyst forecasts and found that while the company has shrunk its earnings in the past, analysts expect its earnings to grow in the future. 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.