Gongniu Group's (SHSE:603195) stock is up by a considerable 11% over the past three months. Given that the market rewards strong financials in the long-term, we wonder if that is the case in this instance. In this article, we decided to focus on Gongniu Group's ROE.

Return on Equity or ROE is a test of how effectively a company is growing its value and managing investors' money. In short, ROE shows the profit each dollar generates with respect to its shareholder investments.

How To Calculate Return On Equity?

The formula for return on equity is:

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

So, based on the above formula, the ROE for Gongniu Group is:

27% = CN¥3.6b ÷ CN¥13b (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2023).

The 'return' is the yearly profit. One way to conceptualize this is that for each CN¥1 of shareholders' capital it has, the company made CN¥0.27 in profit.

What Is The Relationship Between ROE And 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. 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.

Gongniu Group's Earnings Growth And 27% ROE

Firstly, we acknowledge that Gongniu Group has a significantly high ROE. Secondly, even when compared to the industry average of 7.1% the company's ROE is quite impressive. Probably as a result of this, Gongniu Group was able to see a decent net income growth of 14% over the last five years.

Next, on comparing Gongniu Group's net income growth with the industry, we found that the company's reported growth is similar to the industry average growth rate of 14% over the last few years.

The basis for attaching value to a company is, to a great extent, tied to its earnings growth. What investors need to determine next is if the expected earnings growth, or the lack of it, is already built into the share price. This then helps them determine if the stock is placed for a bright or bleak future. Is Gongniu Group fairly valued compared to other companies? These 3 valuation measures might help you decide.

Is Gongniu Group Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?

The high three-year median payout ratio of 51% (or a retention ratio of 49%) for Gongniu Group suggests that the company's growth wasn't really hampered despite it returning most of its income to its shareholders.

Additionally, Gongniu Group has paid dividends over a period of four 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 is expected to keep paying out approximately 62% of its profits over the next three years. As a result, Gongniu Group's ROE is not expected to change by much either, which we inferred from the analyst estimate of 26% for future ROE.

Summary

In total, we are pretty happy with Gongniu Group'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. We also studied the latest analyst forecasts and found that the company's earnings growth is expected be similar to its current growth rate. Are these analysts expectations based on the broad expectations for the industry, or on the company's fundamentals? Click here to be taken to our analyst's forecasts page for the company.

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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.