Yahoo Finance Is Weakness In Charter Hall Group (ASX:CHC) Stock A Sign That The Market Could be Wrong Given Its Strong Financial Prospects?
With its stock down 29% over the past three months, it is easy to disregard Charter Hall Group (ASX:CHC). But if you pay close attention, you might gather that its strong financials could mean that the stock could potentially see an increase in value in the long-term, given how markets usually reward companies with good financial health. Particularly, we will be paying attention to Charter Hall Group's ROE today.
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 short, ROE shows the profit each dollar generates with respect to its shareholder investments.
View our latest analysis for Charter Hall Group
How Is ROE Calculated?
The formula for return on equity is:
Return on Equity = Net Profit (from continuing operations) ÷ Shareholders' Equity
So, based on the above formula, the ROE for Charter Hall Group is:
27% = AU$848m ÷ AU$3.2b (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2021).
The 'return' is the yearly profit. Another way to think of that is that for every A$1 worth of equity, the company was able to earn A$0.27 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. 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 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 Charter Hall Group's Earnings Growth And 27% ROE
Firstly, we acknowledge that Charter Hall Group has a significantly high ROE. Additionally, the company's ROE is higher compared to the industry average of 15% which is quite remarkable. Under the circumstances, Charter Hall Group's considerable five year net income growth of 22% was to be expected.
As a next step, we compared Charter Hall Group'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 11%.
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. Has the market priced in the future outlook for CHC? You can find out in our latest intrinsic value infographic research report.
Is Charter Hall Group Using Its Retained Earnings Effectively?
Charter Hall Group seems to be paying out most of its income as dividends judging by its three-year median payout ratio of 60%, meaning the company retains only 40% of its income. However, this is typical for REITs as they are often required by law to distribute most of their earnings. Despite this, the company's earnings have grown significantly as we saw above.
Moreover, Charter Hall Group is determined to keep sharing its profits with shareholders which we infer from its long history of paying a dividend for at least ten years. Our latest analyst data shows that the future payout ratio of the company is expected to drop to 39% over the next three years. However, Charter Hall Group's future ROE is expected to decline to 13% despite the expected decline in its payout ratio. We infer that there could be other factors that could be steering the foreseen decline in the company's ROE.
Summary
In total, we are pretty happy with Charter Hall Group'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. Having said that, on studying current analyst estimates, we were concerned to see that while the company has grown its earnings in the past, analysts expect its earnings to shrink in the future. 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.
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