Yahoo Finance Do Fundamentals Have Any Role To Play In Driving Alpha Financial Markets Consulting plc's (LON:AFM) Stock Up Recently?
Most readers would already know that Alpha Financial Markets Consulting's (LON:AFM) stock increased by 2.3% over the past three months. We wonder if and what role the company's financials play in that price change as a company's long-term fundamentals usually dictate market outcomes. Specifically, we decided to study Alpha Financial Markets Consulting's ROE in this article.
Return on Equity or ROE is a test of how effectively a company is growing its value and managing investors’ money. Put another way, it reveals the company's success at turning shareholder investments into profits.
Check out our latest analysis for Alpha Financial Markets Consulting
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 Alpha Financial Markets Consulting is:
6.2% = UK£5.8m ÷ UK£94m (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2021).
The 'return' is the income the business earned over the last year. Another way to think of that is that for every £1 worth of equity, the company was able to earn £0.06 in profit.
Why Is ROE Important For 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. 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.
Alpha Financial Markets Consulting's Earnings Growth And 6.2% ROE
At first glance, Alpha Financial Markets Consulting's ROE doesn't look very promising. Next, when compared to the average industry ROE of 10%, the company's ROE leaves us feeling even less enthusiastic. Despite this, surprisingly, Alpha Financial Markets Consulting saw an exceptional 46% net income growth over the past five years. Therefore, there could be other reasons behind this growth. Such as - high earnings retention or an efficient management in place.
Next, on comparing with the industry net income growth, we found that Alpha Financial Markets Consulting's growth is quite high when compared to the industry average growth of 10.0% in the same period, which is great to see.
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. This then helps them determine if the stock is placed for a bright or bleak future. Is Alpha Financial Markets Consulting fairly valued compared to other companies? These 3 valuation measures might help you decide.
Is Alpha Financial Markets Consulting Using Its Retained Earnings Effectively?
Alpha Financial Markets Consulting has a significant three-year median payout ratio of 73%, meaning the company only retains 27% of its income. This implies that the company has been able to achieve high earnings growth despite returning most of its profits to shareholders.
Moreover, Alpha Financial Markets Consulting is determined to keep sharing its profits with shareholders which we infer from its long history of four years of paying a dividend. Upon studying the latest analysts' consensus data, we found that the company's future payout ratio is expected to drop to 48% over the next three years. The fact that the company's ROE is expected to rise to 16% over the same period is explained by the drop in the payout ratio.
Conclusion
Overall, we feel that Alpha Financial Markets Consulting certainly does have some positive factors to consider. That is, quite an impressive growth in earnings. However, the low profit retention means that the company's earnings growth could have been higher, had it been reinvesting a higher portion of its profits. That being so, a study of the latest analyst forecasts show that the company is expected to see a slowdown in its future earnings growth. To know more about the latest analysts predictions for the company, check out this visualization of analyst forecasts for the company.
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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