Yahoo Finance Are Strong Financial Prospects The Force That Is Driving The Momentum In Anglo-Eastern Plantations Plc's LON:AEP) Stock?
Anglo-Eastern Plantations (LON:AEP) has had a great run on the share market with its stock up by a significant 25% over the last three months. Given the company's impressive performance, we decided to study its financial indicators more closely as a company's financial health over the long-term usually dictates market outcomes. Specifically, we decided to study Anglo-Eastern Plantations' 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. In short, ROE shows the profit each dollar generates with respect to its shareholder investments.
See our latest analysis for Anglo-Eastern Plantations
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 Anglo-Eastern Plantations is:
13% = US$71m ÷ US$558m (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 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 £0.13 in profit.
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. 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.
Anglo-Eastern Plantations' Earnings Growth And 13% ROE
To begin with, Anglo-Eastern Plantations seems to have a respectable ROE. Further, the company's ROE is similar to the industry average of 11%. Despite the moderate return on equity, Anglo-Eastern Plantations has posted a net income growth of 4.9% over the past five years. So, there could be some other factors at play that could be impacting the company's growth. For instance, the company pays out a huge portion of its earnings as dividends, or is faced with competitive pressures.
We then performed a comparison between Anglo-Eastern Plantations' net income growth with the industry, which revealed that the company's growth is similar to the average industry growth of 4.9% in the same period.
Earnings growth is a huge factor in stock valuation. 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 Anglo-Eastern Plantations''s valuation, check out this gauge of its price-to-earnings ratio, as compared to its industry.
Is Anglo-Eastern Plantations Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?
Anglo-Eastern Plantations' low three-year median payout ratio of 1.2% (or a retention ratio of 99%) should mean that the company is retaining most of its earnings to fuel its growth. However, the low earnings growth number doesn't reflect this fact. Therefore, there might be some other reasons to explain the lack in that respect. For example, the business could be in decline.
Moreover, Anglo-Eastern Plantations has been paying dividends for at least ten years or more suggesting that management must have perceived that the shareholders prefer dividends over earnings growth.
Summary
On the whole, we feel that Anglo-Eastern Plantations' performance has been quite good. Particularly, we like that the company is reinvesting heavily into its business, and at a high rate of return. As a result, the decent growth in its earnings is not surprising. If the company continues to grow its earnings the way it has, that could have a positive impact on its share price given how earnings per share influence long-term share prices. Let's not forget, business risk is also one of the factors that affects the price of the stock. So this is also an important area that investors need to pay attention to before making a decision on any business. Our risks dashboard will have the 1 risk we have identified for Anglo-Eastern Plantations.
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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