Hai-O Enterprise Berhad's (KLSE:HAIO) Stock Going Strong But Fundamentals Look Weak: What Implications Could This Have On The Stock?

Most readers would already be aware that Hai-O Enterprise Berhad's (KLSE:HAIO) stock increased significantly by 31% over the past three months. We, however wanted to have a closer look at its key financial indicators as the markets usually pay for long-term fundamentals, and in this case, they don't look very promising. Specifically, we decided to study Hai-O Enterprise Berhad's ROE in this article.

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 simpler terms, it measures the profitability of a company in relation to shareholder's equity.

Check out our latest analysis for Hai-O Enterprise Berhad

How Is ROE Calculated?

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 Hai-O Enterprise Berhad is:

11% = RM35m ÷ RM321m (Based on the trailing twelve months to July 2020).

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 MYR0.11 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.

Hai-O Enterprise Berhad's Earnings Growth And 11% ROE

At first glance, Hai-O Enterprise Berhad's ROE doesn't look very promising. However, given that the company's ROE is similar to the average industry ROE of 9.9%, we may spare it some thought. However, Hai-O Enterprise Berhad has seen a flattish net income growth over the past five years, which is not saying much. Remember, the company's ROE is not particularly great to begin with. Hence, this provides some context to the flat earnings growth seen by the company.

As a next step, we compared Hai-O Enterprise 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 13% 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). 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 Hai-O Enterprise Berhad is trading on a high P/E or a low P/E, relative to its industry.

Is Hai-O Enterprise Berhad Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?

With a high three-year median payout ratio of 83% (implying that the company keeps only 17% of its income) of its business to reinvest into its business), most of Hai-O Enterprise Berhad's profits are being paid to shareholders, which explains the absence of growth in earnings.

In addition, Hai-O Enterprise Berhad has been paying dividends over a period of at least ten years suggesting that keeping up dividend payments is way more important to the management even if it comes at the cost of business growth. Upon studying the latest analysts' consensus data, we found that the company is expected to keep paying out approximately 75% 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 13%.

Conclusion

In total, we would have a hard think before deciding on any investment action concerning Hai-O Enterprise Berhad. As a result of its low ROE and lack of mich reinvestment into the business, the company has seen a disappointing earnings growth rate. Having said that, looking at the current analyst estimates, we found that the company's earnings are expected to gain momentum. To know more about the company's future earnings growth forecasts take a look at this free report on analyst forecasts for the company to find out more.

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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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