Is Weakness In AFT Pharmaceuticals Limited (NZSE:AFT) Stock A Sign That The Market Could be Wrong Given Its Strong Financial Prospects?

It is hard to get excited after looking at AFT Pharmaceuticals' (NZSE:AFT) recent performance, when its stock has declined 19% over the past three months. However, stock prices are usually driven by a company’s financial performance over the long term, which in this case looks quite promising. In this article, we decided to focus on AFT Pharmaceuticals' ROE.

Return on equity or ROE is a key measure used to assess how efficiently a company's management is utilizing the company's capital. In short, ROE shows the profit each dollar generates with respect to its shareholder investments.

Check out our latest analysis for AFT Pharmaceuticals

How To 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 AFT Pharmaceuticals is:

35% = NZ$20m ÷ NZ$57m (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2022).

The 'return' is the income the business earned over the last year. So, this means that for every NZ$1 of its shareholder's investments, the company generates a profit of NZ$0.35.

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.

AFT Pharmaceuticals' Earnings Growth And 35% ROE

First thing first, we like that AFT Pharmaceuticals has an impressive ROE. Additionally, the company's ROE is higher compared to the industry average of 18% which is quite remarkable. So, the substantial 67% net income growth seen by AFT Pharmaceuticals over the past five years isn't overly surprising.

We then performed a comparison between AFT Pharmaceuticals' net income growth with the industry, which revealed that the company's growth is similar to the average industry growth of 67% in the same period.

past-earnings-growth

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). Doing so will help them establish if the stock's future looks promising or ominous. What is AFT worth today? The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether AFT is currently mispriced by the market.

Is AFT Pharmaceuticals Making Efficient Use Of Its Profits?

AFT Pharmaceuticals doesn't pay any dividend to its shareholders, meaning that the company has been reinvesting all of its profits into the business. This is likely what's driving the high earnings growth number discussed above.

Conclusion

Overall, we are quite pleased with AFT Pharmaceuticals' performance. In particular, it's great to see that the company is investing heavily into its business and along with a high rate of return, that has resulted in a sizeable growth in its earnings. 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 latest analysts predictions for the company, check out this visualization of analyst forecasts for the company.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.

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.

Join A Paid User Research Session
You’ll receive a US$30 Amazon Gift card for 1 hour of your time while helping us build better investing tools for the individual investors like yourself. Sign up here