Compucase Enterprise Co., Ltd.'s (TPE:3032) Stock Is Going Strong: Have Financials A Role To Play?

Most readers would already be aware that Compucase Enterprise's (TPE:3032) stock increased significantly by 19% over the past month. Given that stock prices are usually aligned with a company's financial performance in the long-term, we decided to study its financial indicators more closely to see if they had a hand to play in the recent price move. Specifically, we decided to study Compucase Enterprise's ROE in this article.

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. Simply put, it is used to assess the profitability of a company in relation to its equity capital.

See our latest analysis for Compucase Enterprise

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 Compucase Enterprise is:

16% = NT$554m ÷ NT$3.5b (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2020).

The 'return' refers to a company's earnings over the last year. So, this means that for every NT$1 of its shareholder's investments, the company generates a profit of NT$0.16.

What Has ROE Got To Do With Earnings Growth?

We have already established that ROE serves as an efficient profit-generating gauge for a company's future earnings. 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.

Compucase Enterprise's Earnings Growth And 16% ROE

At first glance, Compucase Enterprise seems to have a decent ROE. Especially when compared to the industry average of 11% the company's ROE looks pretty impressive. Despite this, Compucase Enterprise's five year net income growth was quite low averaging at only 3.4%. This is generally not the case as when a company has a high rate of return it should usually also have a high earnings growth rate. Such a scenario is likely to take place when a company pays out a huge portion of its earnings as dividends, or is faced with competitive pressures.

As a next step, we compared Compucase Enterprise's net income growth with the industry and were disappointed to see that the company's growth is lower than the industry average growth of 6.7% in the same period.

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. 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 Compucase Enterprise is trading on a high P/E or a low P/E, relative to its industry.

Is Compucase Enterprise Using Its Retained Earnings Effectively?

The high three-year median payout ratio of 74% (that is, the company retains only 26% of its income) over the past three years for Compucase Enterprise suggests that the company's earnings growth was lower as a result of paying out a majority of its earnings.

In addition, Compucase Enterprise has been paying dividends over a period of at least ten years suggesting that keeping up dividend payments is way more important to the management even if it comes at the cost of business growth.

Summary

Overall, we feel that Compucase Enterprise certainly does have some positive factors to consider. However, while the company does have a high ROE, its earnings growth number is quite disappointing. This can be blamed on the fact that it reinvests only a small portion of its profits and pays out the rest as dividends. While we won't completely dismiss the company, what we would do, is try to ascertain how risky the business is to make a more informed decision around the company. To know the 2 risks we have identified for Compucase Enterprise visit our risks dashboard for free.

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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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