Does The Market Have A Low Tolerance For DAEA TI Co., Ltd.'s (KOSDAQ:045390) Mixed Fundamentals?

DAEA TI (KOSDAQ:045390) has had a rough three months with its share price down 13%. We, however decided to study the company's financials to determine if they have got anything to do with the price decline. Long-term fundamentals are usually what drive market outcomes, so it's worth paying close attention. In this article, we decided to focus on DAEA TI'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. Simply put, it is used to assess the profitability of a company in relation to its equity capital.

See our latest analysis for DAEA TI

How To Calculate Return On Equity?

The formula for ROE is:

Return on Equity = Net Profit (from continuing operations) ÷ Shareholders' Equity

So, based on the above formula, the ROE for DAEA TI is:

0.9% = ₩888m ÷ ₩102b (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2020).

The 'return' is the profit over the last twelve months. That means that for every ₩1 worth of shareholders' equity, the company generated ₩0.01 in profit.

Why Is ROE Important For Earnings Growth?

So far, we've learned that ROE is a measure of a company's profitability. 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.

DAEA TI's Earnings Growth And 0.9% ROE

As you can see, DAEA TI's ROE looks pretty weak. Not just that, even compared to the industry average of 5.4%, the company's ROE is entirely unremarkable. Given the circumstances, the significant decline in net income by 18% seen by DAEA TI over the last five years is not surprising. However, there could also be other factors causing the earnings to decline. For instance, the company has a very high payout ratio, or is faced with competitive pressures.

That being said, we compared DAEA TI's performance with the industry and were concerned when we found that while the company has shrunk its earnings, the industry has grown its earnings at a rate of 2.5% in the same period.

Earnings growth is a huge factor in stock valuation. It’s important for an investor to know whether the market has priced in the company's expected earnings growth (or decline). By doing so, they will have an idea if the stock is headed into clear blue waters or if swampy waters await. If you're wondering about DAEA TI's's valuation, check out this gauge of its price-to-earnings ratio, as compared to its industry.

Is DAEA TI Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?

Looking at its three-year median payout ratio of 43% (or a retention ratio of 57%) which is pretty normal, DAEA TI's declining earnings is rather baffling as one would expect to see a fair bit of growth when a company is retaining a good portion 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.

Additionally, DAEA TI started paying a dividend only recently. So it looks like the management may have perceived that shareholders favor dividends even though earnings have been in decline.

Summary

Overall, we have mixed feelings about DAEA TI. While the company does have a high rate of profit retention, its low rate of return is probably hampering its 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 3 risks we have identified for DAEA TI 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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