Yahoo Finance Estia Health Limited (ASX:EHE) Stock's On A Decline: Are Poor Fundamentals The Cause?
Estia Health (ASX:EHE) has had a rough three months with its share price down 14%. To decide if this trend could continue, we decided to look at its weak fundamentals as they shape the long-term market trends. Specifically, we decided to study Estia Health'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. Put another way, it reveals the company's success at turning shareholder investments into profits.
See our latest analysis for Estia Health
How Do You 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 Estia Health is:
0.6% = AU$3.5m ÷ AU$598m (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2021).
The 'return' refers to a company's earnings over the last year. Another way to think of that is that for every A$1 worth of equity, the company was able to earn A$0.01 in profit.
Why Is ROE Important For 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. 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.
Estia Health's Earnings Growth And 0.6% ROE
As you can see, Estia Health's ROE looks pretty weak. Even when compared to the industry average of 8.2%, the ROE figure is pretty disappointing. Given the circumstances, the significant decline in net income by 47% seen by Estia Health over the last five years is not surprising. However, there could also be other factors causing the earnings to decline. Such as - low earnings retention or poor allocation of capital.
Furthermore, even when compared to the industry, which has been shrinking its earnings at a rate 0.1% in the same period, we found that Estia Health's performance is pretty disappointing, as it suggests that the company has been shrunk its earnings at a rate faster than the industry.
The basis for attaching value to a company is, to a great extent, tied to its earnings growth. The investor should try to establish if the expected growth or decline in earnings, whichever the case may be, is priced in. Doing so will help them establish if the stock's future looks promising or ominous. Is Estia Health fairly valued compared to other companies? These 3 valuation measures might help you decide.
Is Estia Health Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?
Estia Health's declining earnings is not surprising given how the company is spending most of its profits in paying dividends, judging by its three-year median payout ratio of 100% (or a retention ratio of 0.5%). With only a little being reinvested into the business, earnings growth would obviously be low or non-existent.
In addition, Estia Health has been paying dividends over a period of seven years suggesting that keeping up dividend payments is preferred by the management even though earnings have been in decline. Existing analyst estimates suggest that the company's future payout ratio is expected to drop to 78% over the next three years. The fact that the company's ROE is expected to rise to 4.1% over the same period is explained by the drop in the payout ratio.
Summary
Overall, we would be extremely cautious before making any decision on Estia Health. The low ROE, combined with the fact that the company is paying out almost if not all, of its profits as dividends, has resulted in the lack or absence of growth in its earnings. Having said that, looking at current analyst estimates, we found that the company's earnings growth rate is expected to see a huge improvement. Are these analysts expectations based on the broad expectations for the industry, or on the company's fundamentals? Click here to be taken to our analyst's forecasts page 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.
