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Is Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Corporation Limited's (NZSE:FPH) Recent Stock Performance Tethered To Its Strong Fundamentals?

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare (NZSE:FPH) has had a great run on the share market with its stock up by a significant 26% 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. Specifically, we decided to study Fisher & Paykel Healthcare's ROE in this article.

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

View our latest analysis for Fisher & Paykel Healthcare

How To Calculate Return On Equity?

The formula for return on equity is:

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Return on Equity = Net Profit (from continuing operations) ÷ Shareholders' Equity

So, based on the above formula, the ROE for Fisher & Paykel Healthcare is:

17% = NZ$251m ÷ NZ$1.5b (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2022).

The 'return' is the income the business earned over the last year. So, this means that for every NZ$1 of its shareholder's investments, the company generates a profit of NZ$0.17.

What Is The Relationship Between ROE And Earnings Growth?

We have already established that ROE serves as an efficient profit-generating gauge for a company's future earnings. 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.

A Side By Side comparison of Fisher & Paykel Healthcare's Earnings Growth And 17% ROE

To start with, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare's ROE looks acceptable. On comparing with the average industry ROE of 10% the company's ROE looks pretty remarkable. Probably as a result of this, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare was able to see a decent growth of 19% over the last five years.

As a next step, we compared Fisher & Paykel Healthcare's 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 19% in the same period.

past-earnings-growth
past-earnings-growth

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). This then helps them determine if the stock is placed for a bright or bleak future. 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 Fisher & Paykel Healthcare is trading on a high P/E or a low P/E, relative to its industry.

Is Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Making Efficient Use Of Its Profits?

While Fisher & Paykel Healthcare has a three-year median payout ratio of 50% (which means it retains 50% of profits), the company has still seen a fair bit of earnings growth in the past, meaning that its high payout ratio hasn't hampered its ability to grow.

Besides, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare has been paying dividends for at least ten years or more. This shows that the company is committed to sharing profits with its shareholders. Looking at the current analyst consensus data, we can see that the company's future payout ratio is expected to rise to 64% over the next three years. Still, forecasts suggest that Fisher & Paykel Healthcare's future ROE will rise to 22% even though the the company's payout ratio is expected to rise. We presume that there could some other characteristics of the business that could be driving the anticipated growth in the company's ROE.

Conclusion

In total, we are pretty happy with Fisher & Paykel Healthcare's performance. In particular, its high ROE is quite noteworthy and also the probable explanation behind its considerable earnings growth. Yet, the company is retaining a small portion of its profits. Which means that the company has been able to grow its earnings in spite of it, so that's not too bad. On studying current analyst estimates, we found that analysts expect the company to continue its recent growth streak. 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.

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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