Telekom Malaysia Berhad's (KLSE:TM) Stock Has Fared Decently: Is the Market Following Strong Financials?

Most readers would already know that Telekom Malaysia Berhad's (KLSE:TM) stock increased by 1.2% over the past week. Since the market usually pay for a company’s long-term financial health, we decided to study the company’s fundamentals to see if they could be influencing the market. Particularly, we will be paying attention to Telekom Malaysia Berhad's ROE today.

Return on equity or ROE is a key measure used to assess how efficiently a company's management is utilizing the company's capital. Simply put, it is used to assess the profitability of a company in relation to its equity capital.

Trump has pledged to "unleash" American oil and gas and these 15 US stocks have developments that are poised to benefit.

How Is ROE Calculated?

Return on equity 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 Telekom Malaysia Berhad is:

20% = RM2.0b ÷ RM10.0b (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2025).

The 'return' is the amount earned after tax over the last twelve months. One way to conceptualize this is that for each MYR1 of shareholders' capital it has, the company made MYR0.20 in profit.

View our latest analysis for Telekom Malaysia Berhad

Why Is ROE Important For 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. 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 Telekom Malaysia Berhad's Earnings Growth And 20% ROE

To begin with, Telekom Malaysia Berhad seems to have a respectable ROE. Even when compared to the industry average of 20% the company's ROE looks quite decent. Consequently, this likely laid the ground for the impressive net income growth of 22% seen over the past five years by Telekom Malaysia Berhad. However, there could also be other drivers behind this growth. For example, it is possible that the company's management has made some good strategic decisions, or that the company has a low payout ratio.

As a next step, we compared Telekom Malaysia Berhad's net income growth with the industry, and pleasingly, we found that the growth seen by the company is higher than the average industry growth of 11%.

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. Is TM fairly valued? This infographic on the company's intrinsic value has everything you need to know.

Is Telekom Malaysia Berhad Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?

Telekom Malaysia Berhad has a significant three-year median payout ratio of 53%, meaning the company only retains 47% of its income. This implies that the company has been able to achieve high earnings growth despite returning most of its profits to shareholders.

Moreover, Telekom Malaysia 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. Our latest analyst data shows that the future payout ratio of the company over the next three years is expected to be approximately 63%. However, Telekom Malaysia Berhad's future ROE is expected to decline to 16% despite there being not much change anticipated in the company's payout ratio.

Conclusion

On the whole, we feel that Telekom Malaysia Berhad's performance has been quite good. Especially the high ROE, Which has contributed to the impressive growth seen in earnings. Despite the company reinvesting only a small portion of its profits, it still has managed to grow its earnings so that is appreciable. That being so, a study of the latest analyst forecasts show that the company is expected to see a slowdown in its future earnings growth. To know more about the latest analysts predictions for the company, check out this visualization of analyst forecasts for the company.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.

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.