Most readers would already be aware that Anhui Korrun's (SZSE:300577) stock increased significantly by 34% over the past three months. 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 Anhui Korrun's ROE.

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. In simpler terms, it measures the profitability of a company in relation to shareholder's equity.

How Do You 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 Anhui Korrun is:

13% = CN¥330m ÷ CN¥2.6b (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2024).

The 'return' refers to a company's earnings over the last year. Another way to think of that is that for every CN¥1 worth of equity, the company was able to earn CN¥0.13 in profit.

What Has ROE Got To Do With Earnings Growth?

Thus far, we have learned that ROE measures how efficiently a company is generating its profits. 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 everything else remains unchanged, the higher the ROE and profit retention, the higher the growth rate of a company compared to companies that don't necessarily bear these characteristics.

A Side By Side comparison of Anhui Korrun's Earnings Growth And 13% ROE

At first glance, Anhui Korrun seems to have a decent ROE. Especially when compared to the industry average of 7.1% the company's ROE looks pretty impressive. However, we are curious as to how the high returns still resulted in flat growth for Anhui Korrun in the past five years. Therefore, there could be some other aspects that could potentially be preventing the company from growing. For example, it could be that the company has a high payout ratio or the business has allocated capital poorly, for instance.

We then compared Anhui Korrun's net income growth with the industry and found that the average industry growth rate was 2.8% in the same 5-year period.

Earnings growth is an important metric to consider when valuing a stock. The investor should try to establish if the expected growth or decline in earnings, whichever the case may be, is priced in. Doing so will help them establish if the stock's future looks promising or ominous. Is 300577 fairly valued? This infographic on the company's intrinsic value has everything you need to know.

Is Anhui Korrun Using Its Retained Earnings Effectively?

Anhui Korrun's low three-year median payout ratio of 18%, (meaning the company retains82% of profits) should mean that the company is retaining most of its earnings and consequently, should see higher growth than it has reported.

Additionally, Anhui Korrun has paid dividends over a period of eight years, which means that the company's management is determined to pay dividends even if it means little to no earnings growth.

Summary

On the whole, we do feel that Anhui Korrun has some positive attributes. However, given the high ROE and high profit retention, we would expect the company to be delivering strong earnings growth, but that isn't the case here. This suggests that there might be some external threat to the business, that's hampering its growth. That being so, the latest industry analyst forecasts show that the analysts are expecting to see a huge improvement in the company's earnings 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.