Farm Fresh Berhad (KLSE:FFB) Stock Has Shown Weakness Lately But Financials Look Strong: Should Prospective Shareholders Make The Leap?

Farm Fresh Berhad (KLSE:FFB) has had a rough month with its share price down 9.2%. However, a closer look at its sound financials might cause you to think again. Given that fundamentals usually drive long-term market outcomes, the company is worth looking at. Particularly, we will be paying attention to Farm Fresh Berhad's ROE today.

Return on equity or ROE is an important factor to be considered by a shareholder because it tells them how effectively their capital is being reinvested. In short, ROE shows the profit each dollar generates with respect to its shareholder investments.

View our latest analysis for Farm Fresh Berhad

How Is ROE Calculated?

The formula for ROE is:

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

So, based on the above formula, the ROE for Farm Fresh Berhad is:

14% = RM98m ÷ RM706m (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2024).

The 'return' refers to a company's earnings over the last year. Another way to think of that is that for every MYR1 worth of equity, the company was able to earn MYR0.14 in profit.

What Is The Relationship Between ROE And Earnings Growth?

We have already established that ROE serves as an efficient profit-generating gauge for a company's future earnings. We now need to evaluate how much profit the company reinvests or "retains" for future growth which then gives us an idea about the growth potential of the company. 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.

A Side By Side comparison of Farm Fresh Berhad's Earnings Growth And 14% ROE

To start with, Farm Fresh Berhad's ROE looks acceptable. Especially when compared to the industry average of 8.8% the company's ROE looks pretty impressive. Probably as a result of this, Farm Fresh Berhad was able to see a decent growth of 8.8% over the last five years.

We then compared Farm Fresh Berhad's net income growth with the industry and found that the company's growth figure is lower than the average industry growth rate of 19% in the same 5-year period, which is a bit concerning.

Earnings growth is an important metric to consider when valuing a stock. It’s important for an investor to know whether the market has priced in the company's expected earnings growth (or decline). Doing so will help them establish if the stock's future looks promising or ominous. What is FFB worth today? The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether FFB is currently mispriced by the market.

Is Farm Fresh Berhad Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?

Farm Fresh Berhad has a three-year median payout ratio of 35%, which implies that it retains the remaining 65% 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.

While Farm Fresh Berhad has seen growth in its earnings, it only recently started to pay a dividend. It is most likely that the company decided to impress new and existing shareholders with a dividend. Upon studying the latest analysts' consensus data, we found that the company is expected to keep paying out approximately 34% of its profits over the next three years. Therefore, the company's future ROE is also not expected to change by much with analysts predicting an ROE of 17%.

Summary

On the whole, we feel that Farm Fresh Berhad's performance has been quite good. Specifically, we like that the company is reinvesting a huge chunk of its profits at a high rate of return. This of course has caused the company to see a good amount of growth in its earnings. With that said, the latest industry analyst forecasts reveal that the company's earnings are expected to accelerate. 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.