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Sunex SA. (WSE:SNX): Can It Deliver A Superior ROE To The Industry?

Sunex SA.’s (WSE:SNX) most recent return on equity was a substandard 3.26% relative to its industry performance of 13.62% over the past year. An investor may attribute an inferior ROE to a relatively inefficient performance, and whilst this can often be the case, knowing the nuts and bolts of the ROE calculation may change that perspective and give you a deeper insight into SNX’s past performance. I will take you through how metrics such as financial leverage impact ROE which may affect the overall sustainability of SNX’s returns. See our latest analysis for Sunex

Breaking down ROE — the mother of all ratios

Return on Equity (ROE) weighs Sunex’s profit against the level of its shareholders’ equity. An ROE of 3.26% implies PLN0.03 returned on every PLN1 invested. In most cases, a higher ROE is preferred; however, there are many other factors we must consider prior to making any investment decisions.

Return on Equity = Net Profit ÷ Shareholders Equity

ROE is measured against cost of equity in order to determine the efficiency of Sunex’s equity capital deployed. Its cost of equity is 15.67%. This means Sunex’s returns actually do not cover its own cost of equity, with a discrepancy of -12.42%. This isn’t sustainable as it implies, very simply, that the company pays more for its capital than what it generates in return. ROE can be broken down into three different 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

WSE:SNX Last Perf May 28th 18
WSE:SNX Last Perf May 28th 18

The first component is profit margin, which measures how much of sales is retained after the company pays for all its expenses. The other component, asset turnover, illustrates how much revenue Sunex can make from its asset base. And finally, financial leverage is simply how much of assets are funded by equity, which exhibits how sustainable the company’s capital structure is. Since ROE can be artificially increased through excessive borrowing, we should check Sunex’s historic debt-to-equity ratio. Currently the debt-to-equity ratio stands at a low 42.47%, which means Sunex still has headroom to take on more leverage in order to increase profits.

WSE:SNX Historical Debt May 28th 18
WSE:SNX Historical Debt May 28th 18

Next Steps:

While ROE is a relatively simple calculation, it can be broken down into different ratios, each telling a different story about the strengths and weaknesses of a company. Sunex’s ROE is underwhelming relative to the industry average, and its returns were also not strong enough to cover its own cost of equity. However, ROE is not likely to be inflated by excessive debt funding, giving shareholders more conviction in the sustainability of returns, which has headroom to increase further. ROE is a helpful signal, but it is definitely not sufficient on its own to make an investment decision.

For Sunex, I’ve put together three pertinent factors you should further examine:

  1. 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.

  2. Valuation: What is Sunex 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 Sunex is currently mispriced by the market.

  3. Other High-Growth Alternatives : Are there other high-growth stocks you could be holding instead of Sunex? 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 pass 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.

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