Hexatronic Group AB (publ) (STO:HTRO) Stock Has Shown Weakness Lately But Financials Look Strong: Should Prospective Shareholders Make The Leap?

It is hard to get excited after looking at Hexatronic Group's (STO:HTRO) recent performance, when its stock has declined 31% over the past three months. However, stock prices are usually driven by a company’s financial performance over the long term, which in this case looks quite promising. Specifically, we decided to study Hexatronic Group's ROE in this article.

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

View our latest analysis for Hexatronic Group

How Is ROE Calculated?

The formula for ROE is:

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

So, based on the above formula, the ROE for Hexatronic Group is:

15% = kr252m ÷ kr1.6b (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2021).

The 'return' is the income the business earned over the last year. Another way to think of that is that for every SEK1 worth of equity, the company was able to earn SEK0.15 in profit.

What Is The Relationship Between ROE And Earnings Growth?

So far, we've learned that ROE is a measure of a company's profitability. Based on how much of its profits the company chooses to reinvest or "retain", we are then able to evaluate a company's future ability to generate profits. 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.

Hexatronic Group's Earnings Growth And 15% ROE

At first glance, Hexatronic Group seems to have a decent ROE. Further, the company's ROE compares quite favorably to the industry average of 11%. This certainly adds some context to Hexatronic Group's exceptional 29% net income growth seen over the past five years. We reckon that there could also be other factors at play here. Such as - high earnings retention or an efficient management in place.

Next, on comparing with the industry net income growth, we found that Hexatronic Group's growth is quite high when compared to the industry average growth of 14% in the same period, which is great to see.

The basis for attaching value to a company is, to a great extent, tied to its earnings growth. The investor should try to establish if the expected growth or decline in earnings, whichever the case may be, is priced in. This then helps them determine if the stock is placed for a bright or bleak future. Is HTRO fairly valued? This infographic on the company's intrinsic value has everything you need to know.

Is Hexatronic Group Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?

Hexatronic Group has a really low three-year median payout ratio of 15%, meaning that it has the remaining 85% left over to reinvest into its business. So it seems like the management is reinvesting profits heavily to grow its business and this reflects in its earnings growth number.

Moreover, Hexatronic Group is determined to keep sharing its profits with shareholders which we infer from its long history of five years of paying a dividend. Our latest analyst data shows that the future payout ratio of the company is expected to drop to 10% over the next three years. As a result, the expected drop in Hexatronic Group's payout ratio explains the anticipated rise in the company's future ROE to 22%, over the same period.

Summary

On the whole, we feel that Hexatronic Group's performance has been quite good. Specifically, we like that the company is reinvesting a huge chunk of its profits at a high rate of return. This of course has caused the company to see substantial growth in its earnings. On studying current analyst estimates, we found that analysts expect the company to continue its recent growth streak. Are these analysts expectations based on the broad expectations for the industry, or on the company's fundamentals? Click here to be taken to our analyst's forecasts page 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.