Southern Publishing and MediaLtd (SHSE:601900) has had a great run on the share market with its stock up by a significant 29% over the last three months. Since the market usually pay for a company's long-term fundamentals, we decided to study the company's key performance indicators to see if they could be influencing the market. Particularly, we will be paying attention to Southern Publishing and MediaLtd's ROE today.

Return on equity or ROE is an important factor to be considered by a shareholder because it tells them how effectively their capital is being reinvested. Simply put, it is used to assess the profitability of a company in relation to its equity capital.

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 Southern Publishing and MediaLtd is:

15% = CN¥1.3b ÷ CN¥8.8b (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2024).

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¥0.15 in profit.

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. 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.

A Side By Side comparison of Southern Publishing and MediaLtd's Earnings Growth And 15% ROE

At first glance, Southern Publishing and MediaLtd seems to have a decent ROE. Further, the company's ROE compares quite favorably to the industry average of 6.5%. This certainly adds some context to Southern Publishing and MediaLtd's decent 13% net income growth seen over the past five years.

As a next step, we compared Southern Publishing and MediaLtd'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 3.3%.

The basis for attaching value to a company is, to a great extent, tied to its earnings growth. The investor should try to establish if the expected growth or decline in earnings, whichever the case may be, is priced in. By doing so, they will have an idea if the stock is headed into clear blue waters or if swampy waters await. If you're wondering about Southern Publishing and MediaLtd's's valuation, check out this gauge of its price-to-earnings ratio, as compared to its industry.

Is Southern Publishing and MediaLtd Making Efficient Use Of Its Profits?

Southern Publishing and MediaLtd has a healthy combination of a moderate three-year median payout ratio of 39% (or a retention ratio of 61%) and a respectable amount of growth in earnings as we saw above, meaning that the company has been making efficient use of its profits.

Moreover, Southern Publishing and MediaLtd is determined to keep sharing its profits with shareholders which we infer from its long history of eight years of paying a dividend.

Summary

In total, we are pretty happy with Southern Publishing and MediaLtd's performance. 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. Having said that, the company's earnings growth is expected to slow down, as forecasted in the current analyst estimates. 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.