Yahoo Finance Blue Label Telecoms Limited (JSE:BLU) Stock Has Shown Weakness Lately But Financials Look Strong: Should Prospective Shareholders Make The Leap?
With its stock down 22% over the past three months, it is easy to disregard Blue Label Telecoms (JSE:BLU). However, stock prices are usually driven by a company’s financial performance over the long term, which in this case looks quite promising. Specifically, we decided to study Blue Label Telecoms' ROE in this article.
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.
Check out our latest analysis for Blue Label Telecoms
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 Blue Label Telecoms is:
26% = R1.1b ÷ R4.2b (Based on the trailing twelve months to May 2022).
The 'return' is the amount earned after tax over the last twelve months. That means that for every ZAR1 worth of shareholders' equity, the company generated ZAR0.26 in profit.
Why Is ROE Important For Earnings Growth?
Thus far, we have learned that ROE measures how efficiently a company is generating its profits. 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. 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.
Blue Label Telecoms' Earnings Growth And 26% ROE
To start with, Blue Label Telecoms' ROE looks acceptable. On comparing with the average industry ROE of 13% the company's ROE looks pretty remarkable. However, we are curious as to how the high returns still resulted in flat growth for Blue Label Telecoms in the past five years. We reckon that there could be some other factors at play here that's limiting the company's growth. Such as, the company pays out a huge portion of its earnings as dividends, or is faced with competitive pressures.
As a next step, we compared Blue Label Telecoms' net income growth with the industry and found that the company has a similar growth figure when compared with the industry average growth rate of 0.06% in the same period.
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. By doing so, they will have an idea if the stock is headed into clear blue waters or if swampy waters await. 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 Blue Label Telecoms is trading on a high P/E or a low P/E, relative to its industry.
Is Blue Label Telecoms Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?
Blue Label Telecoms doesn't pay any dividend, which means that it is retaining all of its earnings. This makes us question why the company is retaining so much of its profits and still generating almost no growth? It looks like there might be some other reasons to explain the lack in that respect. For example, the business could be in decline.
Summary
In total, we are pretty happy with Blue Label Telecoms' performance. In particular, it's great to see that the company is investing heavily into its business and along with a high rate of return, that has resulted in a respectable growth in its earnings. Until now, we have only just grazed the surface of the company's past performance by looking at the company's fundamentals. To gain further insights into Blue Label Telecoms' past profit growth, check out this visualization of past earnings, revenue and cash flows.
Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.
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.
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