Huadian Heavy Industries (SHSE:601226) has had a great run on the share market with its stock up by a significant 36% over the last three months. As most would know, fundamentals are what usually guide market price movements over the long-term, so we decided to look at the company's key financial indicators today to determine if they have any role to play in the recent price movement. Specifically, we decided to study Huadian Heavy Industries' ROE in this article.

Return on Equity or ROE is a test of how effectively a company is growing its value and managing investors' money. In simpler terms, it measures the profitability of a company in relation to shareholder's equity.

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 Huadian Heavy Industries is:

2.8% = CN¥126m ÷ CN¥4.4b (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 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¥0.03 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. We now need to evaluate how much profit the company reinvests or "retains" for future growth which then gives us an idea about the growth potential of the company. 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.

Huadian Heavy Industries' Earnings Growth And 2.8% ROE

As you can see, Huadian Heavy Industries' ROE looks pretty weak. Not just that, even compared to the industry average of 6.9%, the company's ROE is entirely unremarkable. Huadian Heavy Industries was still able to see a decent net income growth of 14% over the past five years. We reckon that there could be other factors at play here. For instance, the company has a low payout ratio or is being managed efficiently.

As a next step, we compared Huadian Heavy Industries' 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 6.6%.

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). Doing so will help them establish if the stock's future looks promising or ominous. If you're wondering about Huadian Heavy Industries''s valuation, check out this gauge of its price-to-earnings ratio, as compared to its industry.

Is Huadian Heavy Industries Making Efficient Use Of Its Profits?

With a three-year median payout ratio of 32% (implying that the company retains 68% of its profits), it seems that Huadian Heavy Industries is reinvesting efficiently in a way that it sees respectable amount growth in its earnings and pays a dividend that's well covered.

Besides, Huadian Heavy Industries has been paying dividends for at least ten years or more. This shows that the company is committed to sharing profits with its shareholders. Our latest analyst data shows that the future payout ratio of the company over the next three years is expected to be approximately 30%. Regardless, the future ROE for Huadian Heavy Industries is predicted to rise to 7.2% despite there being not much change expected in its payout ratio.

Conclusion

In total, it does look like Huadian Heavy Industries has some positive aspects to its business. Even in spite of the low rate of return, the company has posted impressive earnings growth as a result of reinvesting heavily into its business. That being so, the latest analyst forecasts show that the company will continue to see an expansion in its earnings. To know more about the latest analysts predictions for the company, check out this visualization of analyst forecasts 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.