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It is hard to get excited after looking at Touchstar's (LON:TST) recent performance, when its stock has declined 7.7% over the past three months. However, a closer look at its sound financials might cause you to think again. Given that fundamentals usually drive long-term market outcomes, the company is worth looking at. Particularly, we will be paying attention to Touchstar's ROE today.
Return on equity or ROE is a key measure used to assess how efficiently a company's management is utilizing the company's capital. Put another way, it reveals the company's success at turning shareholder investments into profits.
See our latest analysis for Touchstar
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 Touchstar is:
21% = UK£665k ÷ UK£3.2m (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2023).
The 'return' is the yearly profit. So, this means that for every £1 of its shareholder's investments, the company generates a profit of £0.21.
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. 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 Touchstar's Earnings Growth And 21% ROE
To begin with, Touchstar seems to have a respectable ROE. On comparing with the average industry ROE of 14% the company's ROE looks pretty remarkable. This probably laid the ground for Touchstar's significant 85% net income growth seen over the past five years. We reckon that there could also 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 Touchstar'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 11%.
Earnings growth is a huge factor in stock valuation. 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. One good indicator of expected earnings growth is the P/E ratio which determines the price the market is willing to pay for a stock based on its earnings prospects. So, you may want to check if Touchstar is trading on a high P/E or a low P/E, relative to its industry.