What You Must Know About Highway Holdings Limited’s (NASDAQ:HIHO) 11.9% ROE
This article is intended for those of you who are at the beginning of your investing journey and want to learn about Return on Equity using a real-life example.
Highway Holdings Limited (NASDAQ:HIHO) delivered a less impressive 11.9% ROE over the past year, compared to the 12.7% return generated by its industry. Though HIHO’s recent performance is underwhelming, it is useful to understand what ROE is made up of and how it should be interpreted. Knowing these components can change your views on HIHO’s below-average returns. Today I will look at how components such as financial leverage can influence ROE which may impact the sustainability of HIHO’s returns.
See our latest analysis for Highway Holdings
Peeling the layers of ROE – trisecting a company’s profitability
Return on Equity (ROE) weighs Highway Holdings’s profit against the level of its shareholders’ equity. For example, if the company invests $1 in the form of equity, it will generate $0.12 in earnings from this. Generally speaking, a higher ROE is preferred; however, there are other factors we must also consider before making any conclusions.
Return on Equity = Net Profit ÷ Shareholders Equity
ROE is assessed against cost of equity, which is measured using the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) – but let’s not dive into the details of that today. For now, let’s just look at the cost of equity number for Highway Holdings, which is 9.9%. Highway Holdings’s ROE exceeds its cost by 2.0%, which is a big tick. Some of its peers with higher ROE may face a cost which exceeds returns, which is unsustainable and far less desirable than Highway Holdings’s case of positive discrepancy. ROE can be split up into three useful ratios: net profit margin, asset turnover, and financial leverage. This is called the Dupont Formula:
Dupont Formula
ROE = profit margin × asset turnover × financial leverage
ROE = (annual net profit ÷ sales) × (sales ÷ assets) × (assets ÷ shareholders’ equity)
ROE = annual net profit ÷ shareholders’ equity
Essentially, profit margin shows how much money the company makes after paying for all its expenses. The other component, asset turnover, illustrates how much revenue Highway Holdings can make from its asset base. The most interesting ratio, and reflective of sustainability of its ROE, is financial leverage. Since financial leverage can artificially inflate ROE, we need to look at how much debt Highway Holdings currently has. Currently, Highway Holdings has no debt which means its returns are driven purely by equity capital. This could explain why Highway Holdings’s’ ROE is lower than its industry peers, most of which may have some degree of debt in its business.
Next Steps:
ROE is a simple yet informative ratio, illustrating the various components that each measure the quality of the overall stock. While Highway Holdings exhibits a weak ROE against its peers, its returns are sufficient enough to cover its cost of equity. Its appropriate level of leverage means investors can be more confident in the sustainability of Highway Holdings’s return with a possible increase should the company decide to increase its debt levels. ROE is a helpful signal, but it is definitely not sufficient on its own to make an investment decision.
For Highway Holdings, I’ve put together three fundamental factors you should further research:
Financial Health: Does it have a healthy balance sheet? Take a look at our free balance sheet analysis with six simple checks on key factors like leverage and risk.
Valuation: What is Highway Holdings worth today? Is the stock undervalued, even when its growth outlook is factored into its intrinsic value? The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether Highway Holdings is currently mispriced by the market.
Other High-Growth Alternatives : Are there other high-growth stocks you could be holding instead of Highway Holdings? Explore our interactive list of stocks with large growth potential to get an idea of what else is out there you may be missing!
To help readers see past the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements.
The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned. For errors that warrant correction please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com.
