Yahoo Finance APG|SGA SA's (VTX:APGN) Stock is Soaring But Financials Seem Inconsistent: Will The Uptrend Continue?
APG|SGA (VTX:APGN) has had a great run on the share market with its stock up by a significant 21% over the last three months. 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. In this article, we decided to focus on APG|SGA's ROE.
Return on Equity or ROE is a test of how effectively a company is growing its value and managing investors’ money. Put another way, it reveals the company's success at turning shareholder investments into profits.
View our latest analysis for APG|SGA
How To 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 APG|SGA is:
32% = CHF27m ÷ CHF84m (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2023).
The 'return' is the income the business earned over the last year. One way to conceptualize this is that for each CHF1 of shareholders' capital it has, the company made CHF0.32 in profit.
Why Is ROE Important For 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.
APG|SGA's Earnings Growth And 32% ROE
To begin with, APG|SGA has a pretty high ROE which is interesting. Second, a comparison with the average ROE reported by the industry of 12% also doesn't go unnoticed by us. For this reason, APG|SGA's five year net income decline of 16% raises the question as to why the high ROE didn't translate into earnings growth. We reckon that there could be some other factors at play here that are preventing the company's growth. Such as, the company pays out a huge portion of its earnings as dividends, or is faced with competitive pressures.
So, as a next step, we compared APG|SGA's performance against the industry and were disappointed to discover that while the company has been shrinking its earnings, the industry has been growing its earnings at a rate of 13% over the last few years.
Earnings growth is an important metric to consider when valuing a stock. What investors need to determine next is if the expected earnings growth, or the lack of it, is already built into the share price. This then helps them determine if the stock is placed for a bright or bleak future. Is APGN fairly valued? This infographic on the company's intrinsic value has everything you need to know.
Is APG|SGA Making Efficient Use Of Its Profits?
APG|SGA's very high three-year median payout ratio of 141% over the last three years suggests that the company is paying its shareholders more than what it is earning and this explains the company's shrinking earnings. Paying a dividend beyond their means is usually not viable over the long term. You can see the 2 risks we have identified for APG|SGA by visiting our risks dashboard for free on our platform here.
In addition, APG|SGA has been paying dividends over a period of at least ten years suggesting that keeping up dividend payments is way more important to the management even if it comes at the cost of business growth. Upon studying the latest analysts' consensus data, we found that the company's future payout ratio is expected to drop to 94% over the next three years. As a result, the expected drop in APG|SGA's payout ratio explains the anticipated rise in the company's future ROE to 47%, over the same period.
Conclusion
In total, we're a bit ambivalent about APG|SGA's performance. In spite of the high ROE, the company has failed to see growth in its earnings due to it paying out most of its profits as dividend, with almost nothing left to invest into its own business. Up till now, we've only made a short study of the company's growth data. You can do your own research on APG|SGA and see how it has performed in the past by looking at this FREE detailed graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flows.
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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.
