Asseco Business Solutions S.A.'s (WSE:ABS) Stock Been Rising: Are Strong Financials Guiding The Market?

Asseco Business Solutions' (WSE:ABS) stock is up by 3.5% over the past month. 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. In this article, we decided to focus on Asseco Business Solutions' ROE.

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. Put another way, it reveals the company's success at turning shareholder investments into profits.

View our latest analysis for Asseco Business Solutions

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 Asseco Business Solutions is:

25% = zł75m ÷ zł303m (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2020).

The 'return' is the income the business earned over the last year. One way to conceptualize this is that for each PLN1 of shareholders' capital it has, the company made PLN0.25 in profit.

Why Is ROE Important For Earnings Growth?

Thus far, we have learned that ROE measures how efficiently a company is generating its profits. 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.

A Side By Side comparison of Asseco Business Solutions' Earnings Growth And 25% ROE

First thing first, we like that Asseco Business Solutions has an impressive ROE. Additionally, a comparison with the average industry ROE of 24% also portrays the company's ROE in a good light. The high ROE therefore is what most likely laid the ground for the decent growth of 17% seen over the past five years by Asseco Business Solutions.

As a next step, we compared Asseco Business Solutions' net income growth with the industry and found that the company has a similar growth figure when compared with the industry average growth rate of 17% in the same period.

Earnings growth is a huge factor in stock valuation. What investors need to determine next is if the expected earnings growth, or the lack of it, is already built into the share price. 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 Asseco Business Solutions is trading on a high P/E or a low P/E, relative to its industry.

Is Asseco Business Solutions Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?

Asseco Business Solutions has a significant three-year median payout ratio of 80%, meaning that it is left with only 20% to reinvest into its business. This implies that the company has been able to achieve decent earnings growth despite returning most of its profits to shareholders.

Besides, Asseco Business Solutions has been paying dividends for at least ten years or more. This shows that the company is committed to sharing profits with its shareholders.

Summary

In total, we are pretty happy with Asseco Business Solutions' performance. In particular, its high ROE is quite noteworthy and also the probable explanation behind its considerable earnings growth. Yet, the company is retaining a small portion of its profits. Which means that the company has been able to grow its earnings in spite of it, so that's not too bad. So far, we've only made a quick discussion around the company's earnings growth. So it may be worth checking this free detailed graph of Asseco Business Solutions' past earnings, as well as revenue and cash flows to get a deeper insight into the company's performance.

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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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