Is SCC Holdings Berhad's (KLSE:SCC) Stock Price Struggling As A Result Of Its Mixed Financials?

With its stock down 2.6% over the past three months, it is easy to disregard SCC Holdings Berhad (KLSE:SCC). It seems that the market might have completely ignored the positive aspects of the company's fundamentals and decided to weigh-in more on the negative aspects. Long-term fundamentals are usually what drive market outcomes, so it's worth paying close attention. Specifically, we decided to study SCC Holdings Berhad's ROE in this article.

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.

View our latest analysis for SCC Holdings Berhad

How Do You 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 SCC Holdings Berhad is:

9.1% = RM3.9m ÷ RM43m (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2020).

The 'return' is the income the business earned over the last year. One way to conceptualize this is that for each MYR1 of shareholders' capital it has, the company made MYR0.09 in profit.

Why Is ROE Important For Earnings Growth?

Thus far, we have learned that ROE measures how efficiently a company is generating its profits. 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.

SCC Holdings Berhad's Earnings Growth And 9.1% ROE

When you first look at it, SCC Holdings Berhad's ROE doesn't look that attractive. However, the fact that the its ROE is quite higher to the industry average of 5.7% doesn't go unnoticed by us. But seeing SCC Holdings Berhad's five year net income decline of 4.1% over the past five years, we might rethink that. Bear in mind, the company does have a slightly low ROE. It is just that the industry ROE is lower. Hence, this goes some way in explaining the shrinking earnings.

Next, when we compared with the industry, which has shrunk its earnings at a rate of 3.2% in the same period, we still found SCC Holdings Berhad's performance to be quite bleak, because the company has been shrinking its earnings faster than the industry.

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). This then helps them determine if the stock is placed for a bright or bleak future. 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 SCC Holdings Berhad is trading on a high P/E or a low P/E, relative to its industry.

Is SCC Holdings Berhad Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?

While the company did payout a portion of its dividend in the past, it currently doesn't pay a dividend. This implies that potentially all of its profits are being reinvested in the business.

Summary

In total, we're a bit ambivalent about SCC Holdings Berhad's performance. Specifically, the low earnings growth is a bit concerning, especially given that the company has a respectable rate of return. Investors may have benefitted, had the company been reinvesting more of its earnings. As discussed earlier, the company is retaining a small portion of its profits. Up till now, we've only made a short study of the company's growth data. You can do your own research on SCC Holdings Berhad and see how it has performed in the past by looking at this FREE detailed graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flows.

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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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