Sports Gear Co., Ltd.'s (TWSE:6768) Stock Has Seen Strong Momentum: Does That Call For Deeper Study Of Its Financial Prospects?

Sports Gear's (TWSE:6768) stock is up by a considerable 18% over the past month. As most would know, fundamentals are what usually guide market price movements over the long-term, so we decided to look at the company's key financial indicators today to determine if they have any role to play in the recent price movement. Particularly, we will be paying attention to Sports Gear's ROE today.

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

View our latest analysis for Sports Gear

How Do You Calculate Return On Equity?

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 Sports Gear is:

7.4% = NT$1.0b ÷ NT$14b (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2024).

The 'return' refers to a company's earnings over the last year. One way to conceptualize this is that for each NT$1 of shareholders' capital it has, the company made NT$0.07 in profit.

What Has ROE Got To Do With Earnings Growth?

Thus far, we have learned that ROE measures how efficiently a company is generating its profits. 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 everything else remains unchanged, the higher the ROE and profit retention, the higher the growth rate of a company compared to companies that don't necessarily bear these characteristics.

Sports Gear's Earnings Growth And 7.4% ROE

On the face of it, Sports Gear's ROE is not much to talk about. However, its ROE is similar to the industry average of 7.3%, so we won't completely dismiss the company. Having said that, Sports Gear has shown a modest net income growth of 9.9% over the past five years. Taking into consideration that the ROE is not particularly high, we reckon that there could also be other factors at play which could be influencing the company's 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 Sports Gear'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 8.2%.

Earnings growth is a huge factor in stock valuation. 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 Sports Gear fairly valued compared to other companies? These 3 valuation measures might help you decide.

Is Sports Gear Using Its Retained Earnings Effectively?

Sports Gear has a significant three-year median payout ratio of 84%, meaning that it is left with only 16% 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.

Moreover, Sports Gear is determined to keep sharing its profits with shareholders which we infer from its long history of three years of paying a dividend.

Summary

On the whole, we do feel that Sports Gear has some positive attributes. While no doubt its earnings growth is pretty substantial, we do feel that the reinvestment rate is pretty low, meaning, the earnings growth number could have been significantly higher had the company been retaining more of its profits. Until now, we have only just grazed the surface of the company's past performance by looking at the company's fundamentals. To gain further insights into Sports Gear's past profit growth, check out this visualization of past earnings, revenue and cash flows.

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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.