Most readers would already be aware that Chinasoft International's (HKG:354) stock increased significantly by 69% over the past month. But the company's key financial indicators appear to be differing across the board and that makes us question whether or not the company's current share price momentum can be maintained. Specifically, we decided to study Chinasoft International's ROE in this article.

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 other words, it is a profitability ratio which measures the rate of return on the capital provided by the company's shareholders.

See our latest analysis for Chinasoft International

How Is ROE Calculated?

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 Chinasoft International is:

5.7% = CN¥647m ÷ CN¥11b (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2024).

The 'return' is the profit over the last twelve months. One way to conceptualize this is that for each HK$1 of shareholders' capital it has, the company made HK$0.06 in profit.

What Has ROE Got To Do With Earnings Growth?

Thus far, we have learned that ROE measures how efficiently a company is generating its profits. 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. 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.

Chinasoft International's Earnings Growth And 5.7% ROE

On the face of it, Chinasoft International's ROE is not much to talk about. However, given that the company's ROE is similar to the average industry ROE of 5.8%, we may spare it some thought. But Chinasoft International saw a five year net income decline of 3.6% over the past five years. Remember, the company's ROE is a bit low to begin with. Hence, this goes some way in explaining the shrinking earnings.

As a next step, we compared Chinasoft International's performance with the industry and found thatChinasoft International's performance is depressing even when compared with the industry, which has shrunk its earnings at a rate of 2.9% in the same period, which is a slower than the company.

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). By doing so, they will have an idea if the stock is headed into clear blue waters or if swampy waters await. Is 354 fairly valued? This infographic on the company's intrinsic value has everything you need to know.

Is Chinasoft International Making Efficient Use Of Its Profits?

Chinasoft International's low three-year median payout ratio of 19% (or a retention ratio of 81%) over the last three years should mean that the company is retaining most of its earnings to fuel its growth but the company's earnings have actually shrunk. The low payout should mean that the company is retaining most of its earnings and consequently, should see some growth. It looks like there might be some other reasons to explain the lack in that respect. For example, the business could be in decline.

Moreover, Chinasoft International has been paying dividends for eight years, which is a considerable amount of time, suggesting that management must have perceived that the shareholders prefer consistent dividends even though earnings have been shrinking. Upon studying the latest analysts' consensus data, we found that the company is expected to keep paying out approximately 22% of its profits over the next three years. However, Chinasoft International's ROE is predicted to rise to 7.8% despite there being no anticipated change in its payout ratio.

Conclusion

In total, we're a bit ambivalent about Chinasoft International's performance. While the company does have a high rate of profit retention, its low rate of return is probably hampering its earnings growth. Having said that, looking at current analyst estimates, we found that the company's earnings growth rate is expected to see a huge improvement. To know more about the latest analysts predictions for the company, check out this visualization of analyst forecasts for the company.

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