Declining Stock and Solid Fundamentals: Is The Market Wrong About YFY Inc. (TPE:1907)?

It is hard to get excited after looking at YFY's (TPE:1907) recent performance, when its stock has declined 10% over the past month. However, a closer look at its sound financials might cause you to think again. Given that fundamentals usually drive long-term market outcomes, the company is worth looking at. In this article, we decided to focus on YFY's ROE.

Return on Equity or ROE is a test of how effectively a company is growing its value and managing investors’ money. Simply put, it is used to assess the profitability of a company in relation to its equity capital.

See our latest analysis for YFY

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 YFY is:

9.9% = NT$5.4b ÷ NT$54b (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2020).

The 'return' is the yearly profit. Another way to think of that is that for every NT$1 worth of equity, the company was able to earn NT$0.10 in profit.

Why Is ROE Important For 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. 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.

YFY's Earnings Growth And 9.9% ROE

To begin with, YFY seems to have a respectable ROE. Especially when compared to the industry average of 6.5% the company's ROE looks pretty impressive. Probably as a result of this, YFY was able to see an impressive net income growth of 43% over the last five years. We believe that there might also be other aspects that are positively influencing the company's earnings growth. Such as - high earnings retention or an efficient management in place.

Given that the industry shrunk its earnings at a rate of 4.0% in the same period, the net income growth of the company is quite impressive.

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). Doing so will help them establish if the stock's future looks promising or ominous. If you're wondering about YFY's's valuation, check out this gauge of its price-to-earnings ratio, as compared to its industry.

Is YFY Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?

YFY has a significant three-year median payout ratio of 58%, meaning the company only retains 42% 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, YFY 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.

Conclusion

In total, we are pretty happy with YFY's 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. To gain further insights into YFY'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. 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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