Yahoo Finance Are Paragon Care Limited's (ASX:PGC) Mixed Financials The Reason For Its Gloomy Performance on The Stock Market?
Paragon Care (ASX:PGC) has had a rough three months with its share price down 19%. It is possible that the markets have ignored the company's differing financials and decided to lean-in to the negative sentiment. Fundamentals usually dictate market outcomes so it makes sense to study the company's financials. Specifically, we decided to study Paragon Care'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. In simpler terms, it measures the profitability of a company in relation to shareholder's equity.
View our latest analysis for Paragon Care
How Is ROE Calculated?
The formula for ROE is:
Return on Equity = Net Profit (from continuing operations) ÷ Shareholders' Equity
So, based on the above formula, the ROE for Paragon Care is:
6.7% = AU$8.5m ÷ AU$127m (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2021).
The 'return' is the yearly profit. So, this means that for every A$1 of its shareholder's investments, the company generates a profit of A$0.07.
What Has ROE Got To Do With 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 Paragon Care's Earnings Growth And 6.7% ROE
On the face of it, Paragon Care's ROE is not much to talk about. However, its ROE is similar to the industry average of 8.2%, so we won't completely dismiss the company. But Paragon Care saw a five year net income decline of 41% over the past five years. Remember, the company's ROE is a bit low to begin with. Therefore, the decline in earnings could also be the result of this.
Next, when we compared with the industry, which has shrunk its earnings at a rate of 0.1% in the same period, we still found Paragon Care's performance to be quite bleak, because the company has been shrinking its earnings faster than the industry.
Earnings growth is an important metric to consider when valuing a stock. 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. Is PGC fairly valued? This infographic on the company's intrinsic value has everything you need to know.
Is Paragon Care Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?
Looking at its three-year median payout ratio of 47% (or a retention ratio of 53%) which is pretty normal, Paragon Care's declining earnings is rather baffling as one would expect to see a fair bit of growth when a company is retaining a good portion of its profits. So there might be other factors at play here which could potentially be hampering growth. For example, the business has faced some headwinds.
In addition, Paragon Care has been paying dividends over a period of nine years suggesting that keeping up dividend payments is preferred by the management even though earnings have been in decline.
Summary
In total, we're a bit ambivalent about Paragon Care's performance. Even though it appears to be retaining most of its profits, given the low ROE, investors may not be benefitting from all that reinvestment after all. The low earnings growth suggests our theory correct. Wrapping up, we would proceed with caution with this company and one way of doing that would be to look at the risk profile of the business. To know the 5 risks we have identified for Paragon Care visit our risks dashboard for free.
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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.
