Cedar Woods Properties Limited's (ASX:CWP) Stock Is Going Strong: Have Financials A Role To Play?
Cedar Woods Properties' (ASX:CWP) stock is up by a considerable 38% over the past three months. We wonder if and what role the company's financials play in that price change as a company's long-term fundamentals usually dictate market outcomes. Particularly, we will be paying attention to Cedar Woods Properties' ROE today.
ROE or return on equity is a useful tool to assess how effectively a company can generate returns on the investment it received from its shareholders. Simply put, it is used to assess the profitability of a company in relation to its equity capital.
Check out our latest analysis for Cedar Woods Properties
How Is ROE Calculated?
ROE 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 Cedar Woods Properties is:
7.4% = AU$28m ÷ AU$378m (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2019).
The 'return' is the profit over the last twelve months. One way to conceptualize this is that for each A$1 of shareholders' capital it has, the company made A$0.07 in profit.
What Is The Relationship Between ROE And Earnings Growth?
We have already established that ROE serves as an efficient profit-generating gauge for a company's future earnings. 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.
Cedar Woods Properties' Earnings Growth And 7.4% ROE
At first glance, Cedar Woods Properties' ROE doesn't look very promising. However, the fact that the company's ROE is higher than the average industry ROE of 6.2%, is definitely interesting. However, Cedar Woods Properties' five year net income growth was quite low averaging at only 4.3%. Remember, the company's ROE is quite low to begin with, just that it is higher than the industry average. So that could be one of the factors that are causing earnings growth to stay low.
When you consider the fact that the industry earnings have shrunk at a rate of 1.4% in the same period, the company's net income growth is pretty remarkable.
Earnings growth is an important metric to consider when valuing a stock. It’s important for an investor to know whether the market has priced in the company's expected earnings growth (or decline). This then helps them determine if the stock is placed for a bright or bleak future. Is Cedar Woods Properties fairly valued compared to other companies? These 3 valuation measures might help you decide.
Is Cedar Woods Properties Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?
The high three-year median payout ratio of 52% (that is, the company retains only 48% of its income) over the past three years for Cedar Woods Properties suggests that the company's earnings growth was lower as a result of paying out a majority of its earnings.
In addition, Cedar Woods Properties 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 is expected to keep paying out approximately 53% of its profits over the next three years. Accordingly, forecasts suggest that Cedar Woods Properties' future ROE will be 8.2% which is again, similar to the current ROE.
Conclusion
On the whole, we do feel that Cedar Woods Properties has some positive attributes. Namely, its significant earnings growth, to which its moderate rate of return likely contributed. While the company is paying out most of its earnings as dividends, it has been able to grow its earnings in spite of it, so that's probably a good sign. Having said that, looking at the current analyst estimates, we found that the company's earnings are expected to gain momentum. To know more about the company's future earnings growth forecasts take a look at this free report on analyst forecasts for the company to find out more.
This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. 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.
Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com.
