Are Nan Ya Printed Circuit Board Corporation's (TWSE:8046) Fundamentals Good Enough to Warrant Buying Given The Stock's Recent Weakness?

It is hard to get excited after looking at Nan Ya Printed Circuit Board's (TWSE:8046) recent performance, when its stock has declined 26% over the past three months. However, the company's fundamentals look pretty decent, and long-term financials are usually aligned with future market price movements. Specifically, we decided to study Nan Ya Printed Circuit Board's ROE in this article.

Return on Equity or ROE is a test of how effectively a company is growing its value and managing investors’ money. In other words, it is a profitability ratio which measures the rate of return on the capital provided by the company's shareholders.

See our latest analysis for Nan Ya Printed Circuit Board

How To 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 Nan Ya Printed Circuit Board is:

7.4% = NT$3.3b ÷ NT$45b (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2024).

The 'return' refers to a company's earnings over the last year. That means that for every NT$1 worth of shareholders' equity, the company generated NT$0.07 in profit.

Why Is ROE Important For Earnings Growth?

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

Nan Ya Printed Circuit Board's Earnings Growth And 7.4% ROE

At first glance, Nan Ya Printed Circuit Board's ROE doesn't look very promising. Yet, a closer study shows that the company's ROE is similar to the industry average of 8.5%. Particularly, the exceptional 40% net income growth seen by Nan Ya Printed Circuit Board over the past five years is pretty remarkable. Considering the moderately low ROE, it is quite possible that there might be some other aspects that are positively influencing the company's earnings growth. Such as - high earnings retention or an efficient management in place.

Next, on comparing with the industry net income growth, we found that Nan Ya Printed Circuit Board's growth is quite high when compared to the industry average growth of 12% in the same period, which is great to see.

Earnings growth is an important metric to consider when valuing a stock. What investors need to determine next is if the expected earnings growth, or the lack of it, is already built into the share price. By doing so, they will have an idea if the stock is headed into clear blue waters or if swampy waters await. 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 Nan Ya Printed Circuit Board is trading on a high P/E or a low P/E, relative to its industry.

Is Nan Ya Printed Circuit Board Using Its Retained Earnings Effectively?

Nan Ya Printed Circuit Board's significant three-year median payout ratio of 60% (where it is retaining only 40% of its income) suggests that the company has been able to achieve a high growth in earnings despite returning most of its income to shareholders.

Additionally, Nan Ya Printed Circuit Board has paid dividends over a period of nine years which means that the company is pretty serious about sharing its profits with shareholders. Upon studying the latest analysts' consensus data, we found that the company's future payout ratio is expected to rise to 72% over the next three years. However, Nan Ya Printed Circuit Board's future ROE is expected to rise to 13% despite the expected increase in the company's payout ratio. We infer that there could be other factors that could be driving the anticipated growth in the company's ROE.

Conclusion

On the whole, we do feel that Nan Ya Printed Circuit Board has some positive attributes. That is, quite an impressive growth in earnings. However, the low profit retention means that the company's earnings growth could have been higher, had it been reinvesting a higher portion of its profits. On studying current analyst estimates, we found that analysts expect the company to continue its recent growth streak. To know more about the company's future earnings growth forecasts take a look at this free report on analyst forecasts for the company to find out more.

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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.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com