Formosa Prosonic Industries Berhad's (KLSE:FPI) Stock's On An Uptrend: Are Strong Financials Guiding The Market?

Formosa Prosonic Industries Berhad (KLSE:FPI) has had a great run on the share market with its stock up by a significant 48% over the last three months. Since the market usually pay for a company’s long-term fundamentals, we decided to study the company’s key performance indicators to see if they could be influencing the market. In this article, we decided to focus on Formosa Prosonic Industries 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.

View our latest analysis for Formosa Prosonic Industries 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 Formosa Prosonic Industries Berhad is:

15% = RM49m ÷ RM333m (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2020).

The 'return' is the income the business earned over the last year. So, this means that for every MYR1 of its shareholder's investments, the company generates a profit of MYR0.15.

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 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.

Formosa Prosonic Industries Berhad's Earnings Growth And 15% ROE

At first glance, Formosa Prosonic Industries Berhad seems to have a decent ROE. Further, the company's ROE compares quite favorably to the industry average of 11%. This certainly adds some context to Formosa Prosonic Industries Berhad's exceptional 21% net income growth seen over the past five years. We believe that there might also be other aspects that are positively influencing the company's earnings growth. For instance, the company has a low payout ratio or is being managed efficiently.

When you consider the fact that the industry earnings have shrunk at a rate of 3.8% in the same period, the company's net income growth is pretty remarkable.

The basis for attaching value to a company is, to a great extent, tied to its earnings growth. What investors need to determine next is if the expected earnings growth, or the lack of it, is already built into the share price. By doing so, they will have an idea if the stock is headed into clear blue waters or if swampy waters await. 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 Formosa Prosonic Industries Berhad is trading on a high P/E or a low P/E, relative to its industry.

Is Formosa Prosonic Industries Berhad Using Its Retained Earnings Effectively?

Formosa Prosonic Industries Berhad's significant three-year median payout ratio of 62% (where it is retaining only 38% of its income) suggests that the company has been able to achieve a high growth in earnings despite returning most of its income to shareholders.

Moreover, Formosa Prosonic Industries Berhad is determined to keep sharing its profits with shareholders which we infer from its long history of paying a dividend for at least ten years.

Summary

In total, we are pretty happy with Formosa Prosonic Industries Berhad's performance. We are particularly impressed by the considerable earnings growth posted by the company, which was likely backed by its high ROE. While the company is paying out most of its earnings as dividends, it has been able to grow its earnings in spite of it, so that's probably a good sign. Until now, we have only just grazed the surface of the company's past performance by looking at the company's fundamentals. So it may be worth checking this free detailed graph of Formosa Prosonic Industries Berhad's past earnings, as well as revenue and cash flows to get a deeper insight into the company's performance.

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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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