Malaysian Pacific Industries Berhad's (KLSE:MPI) Fundamentals Look Pretty Strong: Could The Market Be Wrong About The Stock?

It is hard to get excited after looking at Malaysian Pacific Industries Berhad's (KLSE:MPI) recent performance, when its stock has declined 16% over the past three months. But if you pay close attention, you might find that its key financial indicators look quite decent, which could mean that the stock could potentially rise in the long-term given how markets usually reward more resilient long-term fundamentals. Particularly, we will be paying attention to Malaysian Pacific Industries Berhad's ROE today.

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. In short, ROE shows the profit each dollar generates with respect to its shareholder investments.

View our latest analysis for Malaysian Pacific Industries Berhad

How Is ROE Calculated?

The formula for return on equity is:

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

So, based on the above formula, the ROE for Malaysian Pacific Industries Berhad is:

10% = RM244m ÷ RM2.4b (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2024).

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 MYR0.10 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. 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.

Malaysian Pacific Industries Berhad's Earnings Growth And 10% ROE

On the face of it, Malaysian Pacific Industries Berhad's ROE is not much to talk about. However, the fact that the its ROE is quite higher to the industry average of 5.0% doesn't go unnoticed by us. But then again, seeing that Malaysian Pacific Industries Berhad's net income shrunk at a rate of 6.6% in the past five years, makes us think again. Bear in mind, the company does have a slightly low ROE. It is just that the industry ROE is lower. Hence, this goes some way in explaining the shrinking earnings.

However, when we compared Malaysian Pacific Industries Berhad's growth with the industry we found that while the company's earnings have been shrinking, the industry has seen an earnings growth of 4.9% in the same period. This is quite worrisome.

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). By doing so, they will have an idea if the stock is headed into clear blue waters or if swampy waters await. What is MPI worth today? The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether MPI is currently mispriced by the market.

Is Malaysian Pacific Industries Berhad Using Its Retained Earnings Effectively?

Looking at its three-year median payout ratio of 39% (or a retention ratio of 61%) which is pretty normal, Malaysian Pacific Industries Berhad's declining earnings is rather baffling as one would expect to see a fair bit of growth when a company is retaining a good portion of its profits. So there could be some other explanations in that regard. For instance, the company's business may be deteriorating.

In addition, Malaysian Pacific Industries 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 32% 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 11%.

Summary

In total, it does look like Malaysian Pacific Industries Berhad has some positive aspects to its business. However, while the company does have a decent ROE and a high profit retention, its earnings growth number is quite disappointing. This suggests that there might be some external threat to the business, that's hampering growth. Having said that, looking at current analyst estimates, we found that the company's earnings growth rate is expected to see a huge improvement. To know more about the latest analysts predictions for the company, check out this visualization of analyst forecasts 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.