Ningbo Fujia Industrial (SHSE:603219) has had a great run on the share market with its stock up by a significant 11% over the last three months. Given the company's impressive performance, we decided to study its financial indicators more closely as a company's financial health over the long-term usually dictates market outcomes. In this article, we decided to focus on Ningbo Fujia Industrial's ROE.

Return on equity or ROE is a key measure used to assess how efficiently a company's management is utilizing the company's capital. Simply put, it is used to assess the profitability of a company in relation to its equity capital.

How Do You Calculate Return On Equity?

ROE 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 Ningbo Fujia Industrial is:

18% = CN¥289m ÷ CN¥1.6b (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2024).

The 'return' is the income the business earned over the last year. One way to conceptualize this is that for each CN¥1 of shareholders' capital it has, the company made CN¥0.18 in profit.

What Has ROE Got To Do With Earnings Growth?

So far, we've learned that ROE is a measure of a company's profitability. 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 all else is equal, companies that have both a higher return on equity and higher profit retention are usually the ones that have a higher growth rate when compared to companies that don't have the same features.

Ningbo Fujia Industrial's Earnings Growth And 18% ROE

To start with, Ningbo Fujia Industrial's ROE looks acceptable. On comparing with the average industry ROE of 9.8% the company's ROE looks pretty remarkable. This certainly adds some context to Ningbo Fujia Industrial's decent 18% net income growth seen over the past five years.

As a next step, we compared Ningbo Fujia Industrial's net income growth with the industry, and pleasingly, we found that the growth seen by the company is higher than the average industry growth of 6.1%.

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). This then helps them determine if the stock is placed for a bright or bleak future. 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 Ningbo Fujia Industrial is trading on a high P/E or a low P/E, relative to its industry.

Is Ningbo Fujia Industrial Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?

The high three-year median payout ratio of 56% (or a retention ratio of 44%) for Ningbo Fujia Industrial suggests that the company's growth wasn't really hampered despite it returning most of its income to its shareholders.

Along with seeing a growth in earnings, Ningbo Fujia Industrial only recently started paying dividends. Its quite possible that the company was looking to impress its shareholders.

Summary

Overall, we are quite pleased with Ningbo Fujia Industrial's performance. Especially the high ROE, Which has contributed to the impressive growth seen in earnings. Despite the company reinvesting only a small portion of its profits, it still has managed to grow its earnings so that is appreciable. On studying current analyst estimates, we found that analysts expect the company to continue its recent growth streak. 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.

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