Shenzhen Urban Transport Planning Center (SZSE:301091) has had a great run on the share market with its stock up by a significant 15% over the last week. 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. In this article, we decided to focus on Shenzhen Urban Transport Planning Center's ROE.

Return on Equity or ROE is a test of how effectively a company is growing its value and managing investors' money. Put another way, it reveals the company's success at turning shareholder investments into profits.

View our latest analysis for Shenzhen Urban Transport Planning Center

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 Shenzhen Urban Transport Planning Center is:

7.3% = CN¥145m ÷ CN¥2.0b (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2022).

The 'return' is the yearly profit. So, this means that for every CN¥1 of its shareholder's investments, the company generates a profit of CN¥0.07.

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. 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. Generally speaking, other things being equal, firms with a high return on equity and profit retention, have a higher growth rate than firms that don't share these attributes.

Shenzhen Urban Transport Planning Center's Earnings Growth And 7.3% ROE

At first glance, Shenzhen Urban Transport Planning Center's ROE doesn't look very promising. However, given that the company's ROE is similar to the average industry ROE of 7.9%, we may spare it some thought. Moreover, we are quite pleased to see that Shenzhen Urban Transport Planning Center's net income grew significantly at a rate of 24% over the last 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.

Next, on comparing with the industry net income growth, we found that Shenzhen Urban Transport Planning Center's growth is quite high when compared to the industry average growth of 8.9% in the same period, which is great to see.

Earnings growth is an important metric to consider when valuing a stock. 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 Shenzhen Urban Transport Planning Center's's valuation, check out this gauge of its price-to-earnings ratio, as compared to its industry.

Is Shenzhen Urban Transport Planning Center Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?

The three-year median payout ratio for Shenzhen Urban Transport Planning Center is 26%, which is moderately low. The company is retaining the remaining 74%. By the looks of it, the dividend is well covered and Shenzhen Urban Transport Planning Center is reinvesting its profits efficiently as evidenced by its exceptional growth which we discussed above.

Summary

In total, it does look like Shenzhen Urban Transport Planning Center has some positive aspects to its business. Even in spite of the low rate of return, the company has posted impressive earnings growth as a result of reinvesting heavily into its business. 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. Our risks dashboard would have the 2 risks we have identified for Shenzhen Urban Transport Planning Center.

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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.