Are PeterLabs Holdings Berhad's (KLSE:PLABS) Mixed Financials The Reason For Its Gloomy Performance on The Stock Market?

With its stock down 4.2% over the past three months, it is easy to disregard PeterLabs Holdings Berhad (KLSE:PLABS). 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. Fundamentals usually dictate market outcomes so it makes sense to study the company's financials. In this article, we decided to focus on PeterLabs Holdings Berhad's ROE.

Return on equity or ROE is a key measure used to assess how efficiently a company's management is utilizing the company's capital. In short, ROE shows the profit each dollar generates with respect to its shareholder investments.

View our latest analysis for PeterLabs 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 PeterLabs Holdings Berhad is:

7.3% = RM4.2m ÷ RM57m (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2020).

The 'return' is the profit over the last twelve months. Another way to think of that is that for every MYR1 worth of equity, the company was able to earn MYR0.07 in profit.

What Has ROE Got To Do With 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.

PeterLabs Holdings Berhad's Earnings Growth And 7.3% ROE

On the face of it, PeterLabs Holdings Berhad's ROE is not much to talk about. However, given that the company's ROE is similar to the average industry ROE of 8.2%, we may spare it some thought. On the other hand, PeterLabs Holdings Berhad reported a fairly low 3.3% net income growth over the past five years. Bear in mind, the company's ROE is not very high . So this could also be one of the reasons behind the company's low growth in earnings.

As a next step, we compared PeterLabs Holdings Berhad's net income growth with the industry and were disappointed to see that the company's growth is lower than the industry average growth of 7.8% 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). 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 PeterLabs Holdings Berhad is trading on a high P/E or a low P/E, relative to its industry.

Is PeterLabs Holdings Berhad Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?

Despite having a moderate three-year median payout ratio of 32% (implying that the company retains the remaining 68% of its income), PeterLabs Holdings Berhad's earnings growth was quite low. So there could be some other explanation in that regard. For instance, the company's business may be deteriorating.

Additionally, PeterLabs Holdings Berhad has paid dividends over a period of nine years, which means that the company's management is determined to pay dividends even if it means little to no earnings growth.

Summary

Overall, we have mixed feelings about PeterLabs Holdings Berhad. While the company does have a high rate of reinvestment, the low ROE means that all that reinvestment is not reaping any benefit to its investors, and moreover, its having a negative impact on the 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. Our risks dashboard would have the 3 risks we have identified for PeterLabs Holdings Berhad.

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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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