Is G. Willi-Food International Ltd.'s (NASDAQ:WILC) Stock On A Downtrend As A Result Of Its Poor Financials?
G. Willi-Food International (NASDAQ:WILC) has had a rough three months with its share price down 16%. Given that stock prices are usually driven by a company’s fundamentals over the long term, which in this case look pretty weak, we decided to study the company's key financial indicators. In this article, we decided to focus on G. Willi-Food International'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. In other words, it is a profitability ratio which measures the rate of return on the capital provided by the company's shareholders.
Check out our latest analysis for G. Willi-Food International
How Do You Calculate Return On Equity?
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 G. Willi-Food International is:
6.7% = ₪36m ÷ ₪546m (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2023).
The 'return' is the amount earned after tax over the last twelve months. One way to conceptualize this is that for each $1 of shareholders' capital it has, the company made $0.07 in profit.
Why Is ROE Important For Earnings Growth?
So far, we've learned that ROE is a measure of a company's profitability. 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.
G. Willi-Food International's Earnings Growth And 6.7% ROE
At first glance, G. Willi-Food International's ROE doesn't look very promising. A quick further study shows that the company's ROE doesn't compare favorably to the industry average of 16% either. Accordingly, G. Willi-Food International's low net income growth of 3.0% over the past five years can possibly be explained by the low ROE amongst other factors.
As a next step, we compared G. Willi-Food International'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 12% in the same period.
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). This then helps them determine if the stock is placed for a bright or bleak future. What is WILC worth today? The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether WILC is currently mispriced by the market.
Is G. Willi-Food International Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?
G. Willi-Food International has a very high three-year median payout ratio of 157%, which suggests that the company is dipping into more than just its profits to pay its dividend and that shows in its low earnings growth number. That's a huge risk in our books.
Additionally, G. Willi-Food International has paid dividends over a period of seven years, which means that the company's management is determined to pay dividends even if it means little to no earnings growth.
Conclusion
On the whole, G. Willi-Food International's performance is quite a big let-down. Particularly, its ROE is a huge disappointment, not to mention its lack of proper reinvestment into the business. As a result its earnings growth has also been quite disappointing. So far, we've only made a quick discussion around the company's earnings growth. You can do your own research on G. Willi-Food International 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.
