Yahoo Finance Is AirAsia X Berhad's (KLSE:AAX) Recent Stock Performance Influenced By Its Fundamentals In Any Way?
AirAsia X Berhad's (KLSE:AAX) stock is up by a considerable 20% over the past month. Given that stock prices are usually aligned with a company's financial performance in the long-term, we decided to study its financial indicators more closely to see if they had a hand to play in the recent price move. Specifically, we decided to study AirAsia X Berhad'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. Simply put, it is used to assess the profitability of a company in relation to its equity capital.
View our latest analysis for AirAsia X Berhad
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 AirAsia X Berhad is:
43% = RM84m ÷ RM195m (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2024).
The 'return' refers to a company's earnings over the last year. So, this means that for every MYR1 of its shareholder's investments, the company generates a profit of MYR0.43.
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.
AirAsia X Berhad's Earnings Growth And 43% ROE
First thing first, we like that AirAsia X Berhad has an impressive ROE. Secondly, even when compared to the industry average of 18% the company's ROE is quite impressive. Yet, AirAsia X Berhad has posted measly growth of 3.3% over the past five years. This is generally not the case as when a company has a high rate of return it should usually also have a high earnings growth rate. We reckon that a low growth, when returns are quite high could be the result of certain circumstances like low earnings retention or or poor allocation of capital.
Next, on comparing with the industry net income growth, we found that AirAsia X Berhad's reported growth was lower than the industry growth of 13% over the last few years, which is not something we like to see.
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). Doing so will help them establish if the stock's future looks promising or ominous. One good indicator of expected earnings growth is the P/E ratio which determines the price the market is willing to pay for a stock based on its earnings prospects. So, you may want to check if AirAsia X Berhad is trading on a high P/E or a low P/E, relative to its industry.
Is AirAsia X Berhad Making Efficient Use Of Its Profits?
AirAsia X Berhad doesn't pay any regular dividends, which means that it is retaining all of its earnings. However, this doesn't explain the low earnings growth the company has seen. So there might be other factors at play here which could potentially be hampering growth. For example, the business has faced some headwinds.
Summary
In total, it does look like AirAsia X Berhad has some positive aspects to its business. However, given the high ROE and high profit retention, we would expect the company to be delivering strong earnings growth, but that isn't the case here. This suggests that there might be some external threat to the business, that's hampering its growth. With that said, the latest industry analyst forecasts reveal that the company's earnings are expected to accelerate. 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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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.
