Can Mixed Financials Have A Negative Impact on ASolid Technology Co., Ltd.'s 's (GTSM:6485) Current Price Momentum?

ASolid Technology's (GTSM:6485) stock is up by 4.5% over the past month. However, we decided to study the company's mixed-bag of fundamentals to assess what this could mean for future share prices, as stock prices tend to be aligned with a company's long-term financial performance. Specifically, we decided to study ASolid Technology's ROE in this article.

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. In other words, it is a profitability ratio which measures the rate of return on the capital provided by the company's shareholders.

View our latest analysis for ASolid Technology

How Do You Calculate Return On Equity?

The formula for ROE is:

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

So, based on the above formula, the ROE for ASolid Technology is:

1.8% = NT$17m ÷ NT$954m (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$0.02 in profit.

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 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.

ASolid Technology's Earnings Growth And 1.8% ROE

As you can see, ASolid Technology's ROE looks pretty weak. Even when compared to the industry average of 11%, the ROE figure is pretty disappointing. Therefore, it might not be wrong to say that the five year net income decline of 24% seen by ASolid Technology was possibly a result of it having a lower ROE. We believe that there also might be other aspects that are negatively influencing the company's earnings prospects. For instance, the company has a very high payout ratio, or is faced with competitive pressures.

That being said, we compared ASolid Technology's performance with the industry and were concerned when we found that while the company has shrunk its earnings, the industry has grown its earnings at a rate of 8.9% in the same period.

The basis for attaching value to a company is, to a great extent, tied to its earnings growth. It’s important for an investor to know whether the market has priced in the company's expected earnings growth (or decline). By doing so, they will have an idea if the stock is headed into clear blue waters or if swampy waters await. Is ASolid Technology fairly valued compared to other companies? These 3 valuation measures might help you decide.

Is ASolid Technology Making Efficient Use Of Its Profits?

Looking at its three-year median payout ratio of 34% (or a retention ratio of 66%) which is pretty normal, ASolid Technology's declining earnings is rather baffling as one would expect to see a fair bit of growth when a company is retaining a good portion of its profits. So there might be other factors at play here which could potentially be hampering growth. For example, the business has faced some headwinds.

Moreover, ASolid Technology has been paying dividends for six years, which is a considerable amount of time, suggesting that management must have perceived that the shareholders prefer consistent dividends even though earnings have been shrinking.

Conclusion

On the whole, we feel that the performance shown by ASolid Technology can be open to many interpretations. While the company does have a high rate of profit retention, its low rate of return is probably hampering its earnings growth. Wrapping up, we would proceed with caution with this company and one way of doing that would be to look at the risk profile of the business. You can see the 4 risks we have identified for ASolid Technology by visiting our risks dashboard for free on our platform here.

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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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