Yahoo Finance Should Weakness in Orell Füssli AG's (VTX:OFN) Stock Be Seen As A Sign That Market Will Correct The Share Price Given Decent Financials?
Orell Füssli (VTX:OFN) has had a rough three months with its share price down 3.3%. But if you pay close attention, you might find that its key financial indicators look quite decent, which could mean that the stock could potentially rise in the long-term given how markets usually reward more resilient long-term fundamentals. Particularly, we will be paying attention to Orell Füssli's ROE today.
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. Simply put, it is used to assess the profitability of a company in relation to its equity capital.
View our latest analysis for Orell Füssli
How Do You Calculate Return On Equity?
Return on equity 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 Orell Füssli is:
9.8% = CHF13m ÷ CHF135m (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2022).
The 'return' refers to a company's earnings over the last year. That means that for every CHF1 worth of shareholders' equity, the company generated CHF0.10 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. 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 Orell Füssli's Earnings Growth And 9.8% ROE
At first glance, Orell Füssli seems to have a decent ROE. Even so, when compared with the average industry ROE of 13%, we aren't very excited. However, we are pleased to see the impressive 31% net income growth reported by Orell Füssli over the past five years. Therefore, there could be other causes behind this growth. Such as - high earnings retention or an efficient management in place. Bear in mind, the company does have a respectable ROE. It is just that the industry ROE is higher. So this certainly also provides some context to the high earnings growth seen by the company.
We then compared Orell Füssli's net income growth with the industry and we're pleased to see that the company's growth figure is higher when compared with the industry which has a growth rate of 11% in the same period.
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. If you're wondering about Orell Füssli's's valuation, check out this gauge of its price-to-earnings ratio, as compared to its industry.
Is Orell Füssli Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?
Orell Füssli's significant three-year median payout ratio of 63% (where it is retaining only 37% of its income) suggests that the company has been able to achieve a high growth in earnings despite returning most of its income to shareholders.
Additionally, Orell Füssli has paid dividends over a period of at least ten years which means that the company is pretty serious about sharing its profits with shareholders. Upon studying the latest analysts' consensus data, we found that the company's future payout ratio is expected to rise to 78% over the next three years. Accordingly, the expected increase in the payout ratio explains the expected decline in the company's ROE to 7.2%, over the same period.
Conclusion
In total, it does look like Orell Füssli has some positive aspects to its business. Specifically, its respectable ROE which likely led to the considerable growth in earnings. 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, the company's earnings growth is expected to slow down, as forecasted in the current analyst estimates. 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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