Has So-Young International Inc.'s (NASDAQ:SY) Impressive Stock Performance Got Anything to Do With Its Fundamentals?
So-Young International (NASDAQ:SY) has had a great run on the share market with its stock up by a significant 10.0% over the last week. 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. Specifically, we decided to study So-Young International's ROE in this article.
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. 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 So-Young International
How Is ROE Calculated?
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 So-Young International is:
2.5% = CN¥68m ÷ CN¥2.7b (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2020).
The 'return' is the profit over the last twelve months. One way to conceptualize this is that for each $1 of shareholders' capital it has, the company made $0.03 in profit.
What Has ROE Got To Do With Earnings Growth?
We have already established that ROE serves as an efficient profit-generating gauge for a company's future earnings. Based on how much of its profits the company chooses to reinvest or "retain", we are then able to evaluate a company's future ability to generate profits. 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.
A Side By Side comparison of So-Young International's Earnings Growth And 2.5% ROE
As you can see, So-Young International's ROE looks pretty weak. Even compared to the average industry ROE of 19%, the company's ROE is quite dismal. Despite this, surprisingly, So-Young International saw an exceptional 90% net income growth over the past five years. We reckon that there could be other factors at play here. For instance, the company has a low payout ratio or is being managed efficiently.
As a next step, we compared So-Young International's net income growth with the industry, and pleasingly, we found that the growth seen by the company is higher than the average industry growth of 36%.
The basis for attaching value to a company is, to a great extent, tied to its earnings growth. What investors need to determine next is if the expected earnings growth, or the lack of it, is already built into the share price. Doing so will help them establish if the stock's future looks promising or ominous. What is SY worth today? The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether SY is currently mispriced by the market.
Is So-Young International Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?
Summary
Overall, we feel that So-Young International certainly does have some positive factors to consider. Despite its low rate of return, the fact that the company reinvests a very high portion of its profits into its business, no doubt contributed to its high earnings growth. That being so, a study of the latest analyst forecasts show that the company is expected to see a slowdown in its future earnings growth. To know more about the latest analysts predictions for the company, check out this visualization of analyst forecasts for the company.
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.
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