Has Sunway Berhad's (KLSE:SUNWAY) Impressive Stock Performance Got Anything to Do With Its Fundamentals?

Sunway Berhad (KLSE:SUNWAY) has had a great run on the share market with its stock up by a significant 12% over the last three months. Given that stock prices are usually aligned with a company's financial performance in the long-term, we decided to study its financial indicators more closely to see if they had a hand to play in the recent price move. In this article, we decided to focus on Sunway Berhad'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. Put another way, it reveals the company's success at turning shareholder investments into profits.

Check out our latest analysis for Sunway Berhad

How Do You 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 Sunway Berhad is:

7.5% = RM1.2b ÷ RM16b (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2024).

The 'return' refers to a company's earnings over the last year. That means that for every MYR1 worth of shareholders' equity, the company generated MYR0.08 in profit.

What Is The Relationship Between ROE And 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.

A Side By Side comparison of Sunway Berhad's Earnings Growth And 7.5% ROE

At first glance, Sunway Berhad's ROE doesn't look very promising. However, given that the company's ROE is similar to the average industry ROE of 7.8%, we may spare it some thought. On the other hand, Sunway Berhad reported a moderate 12% net income growth over the past five years. Given the slightly low ROE, it is likely that there could be some other aspects that are driving this growth. For instance, the company has a low payout ratio or is being managed efficiently.

As a next step, we compared Sunway Berhad's net income growth with the industry and found that the company has a similar growth figure when compared with the industry average growth rate of 11% in the same period.

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. 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 Sunway Berhad is trading on a high P/E or a low P/E, relative to its industry.

Is Sunway Berhad Using Its Retained Earnings Effectively?

Sunway Berhad has a three-year median payout ratio of 47%, which implies that it retains the remaining 53% of its profits. This suggests that its dividend is well covered, and given the decent growth seen by the company, it looks like management is reinvesting its earnings efficiently.

Additionally, Sunway Berhad has paid dividends over a period of at least ten years which means that the company is pretty serious about sharing its profits with shareholders. Our latest analyst data shows that the future payout ratio of the company over the next three years is expected to be approximately 44%. Accordingly, forecasts suggest that Sunway Berhad's future ROE will be 7.1% which is again, similar to the current ROE.

Conclusion

Overall, we feel that Sunway Berhad certainly does have some positive factors to consider. With a high rate of reinvestment, albeit at a low ROE, the company has managed to see a considerable growth in its earnings. Having said that, the company's earnings growth is expected to slow down, as forecasted in the current analyst estimates. Are these analysts expectations based on the broad expectations for the industry, or on the company's fundamentals? Click here to be taken to our analyst's forecasts page 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.