Sungrow Power Supply (SZSE:300274) has had a great run on the share market with its stock up by a significant 34% 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. Particularly, we will be paying attention to Sungrow Power Supply's ROE today.

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. In other words, it is a profitability ratio which measures the rate of return on the capital provided by the company's shareholders.

How To 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 Sungrow Power Supply is:

31% = CN¥10b ÷ CN¥33b (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2024).

The 'return' refers to a company's earnings over the last year. That means that for every CN¥1 worth of shareholders' equity, the company generated CN¥0.31 in profit.

What Is The Relationship Between ROE And Earnings Growth?

So far, we've learned that ROE is a measure of a company's profitability. Depending on how much of these profits the company reinvests or "retains", and how effectively it does so, we are then able to assess a company's earnings growth potential. 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.

Sungrow Power Supply's Earnings Growth And 31% ROE

Firstly, we acknowledge that Sungrow Power Supply has a significantly high ROE. Secondly, even when compared to the industry average of 6.6% the company's ROE is quite impressive. So, the substantial 52% net income growth seen by Sungrow Power Supply over the past five years isn't overly surprising.

As a next step, we compared Sungrow Power Supply'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 11%.

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 Sungrow Power Supply fairly valued compared to other companies? These 3 valuation measures might help you decide.

Is Sungrow Power Supply Making Efficient Use Of Its Profits?

Sungrow Power Supply's three-year median payout ratio to shareholders is 9.1%, which is quite low. This implies that the company is retaining 91% of its profits. So it seems like the management is reinvesting profits heavily to grow its business and this reflects in its earnings growth number.

Moreover, Sungrow Power Supply is determined to keep sharing its profits with shareholders which we infer from its long history of paying a dividend for at least ten years. Looking at the current analyst consensus data, we can see that the company's future payout ratio is expected to rise to 15% over the next three years. Therefore, the expected rise in the payout ratio explains why the company's ROE is expected to decline to 22% over the same period.

Summary

On the whole, we feel that Sungrow Power Supply's performance has been quite good. Specifically, we like that the company is reinvesting a huge chunk of its profits at a high rate of return. This of course has caused the company to see substantial growth in its earnings. That being so, a study of the latest analyst forecasts show that the company is expected to see a slowdown in its future earnings growth. 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.