Yahoo Finance NetEase, Inc.'s (NASDAQ:NTES) Stock Is Going Strong: Is the Market Following Fundamentals?
NetEase's (NASDAQ:NTES) stock is up by a considerable 13% over the past month. Since the market usually pay for a company’s long-term fundamentals, we decided to study the company’s key performance indicators to see if they could be influencing the market. In this article, we decided to focus on NetEase's 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. Simply put, it is used to assess the profitability of a company in relation to its equity capital.
Check out our latest analysis for NetEase
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 NetEase is:
17% = CN¥17b ÷ CN¥99b (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2021).
The 'return' refers to a company's earnings over the last year. So, this means that for every $1 of its shareholder's investments, the company generates a profit of $0.17.
Why Is ROE Important For Earnings Growth?
So far, we've learned that ROE is a measure of a company's profitability. 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.
NetEase's Earnings Growth And 17% ROE
To begin with, NetEase seems to have a respectable ROE. On comparing with the average industry ROE of 9.9% the company's ROE looks pretty remarkable. This probably laid the ground for NetEase's moderate 6.1% net income growth seen over the past five years.
As a next step, we compared NetEase's net income growth with the industry and were disappointed to see that the company's growth is lower than the industry average growth of 28% in the same period.
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. By doing so, they will have an idea if the stock is headed into clear blue waters or if swampy waters await. Has the market priced in the future outlook for NTES? You can find out in our latest intrinsic value infographic research report.
Is NetEase Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?
With a three-year median payout ratio of 28% (implying that the company retains 72% of its profits), it seems that NetEase is reinvesting efficiently in a way that it sees respectable amount growth in its earnings and pays a dividend that's well covered.
Additionally, NetEase has paid dividends over a period of eight years which means that the company is pretty serious about sharing its profits with shareholders. Our latest analyst data shows that the future payout ratio of the company over the next three years is expected to be approximately 26%. As a result, NetEase's ROE is not expected to change by much either, which we inferred from the analyst estimate of 18% for future ROE.
Conclusion
On the whole, we feel that NetEase's performance has been quite good. Specifically, we like that the company is reinvesting a huge chunk of its profits at a high rate of return. This of course has caused the company to see a good amount of growth in its earnings. That being so, the latest analyst forecasts show that the company will continue to see an expansion in its earnings. Are these analysts expectations based on the broad expectations for the industry, or on the company's fundamentals? Click here to be taken to our analyst's forecasts page 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.
