Apex Frozen Foods Limited's (NSE:APEX) Stock Is Rallying But Financials Look Ambiguous: Will The Momentum Continue?

Simply Wall St · 10/16 00:32

Apex Frozen Foods (NSE:APEX) has had a great run on the share market with its stock up by a significant 16% over the last three months. However, we wonder if the company's inconsistent financials would have any adverse impact on the current share price momentum. Specifically, we decided to study Apex Frozen Foods' 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 Apex Frozen Foods

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 Apex Frozen Foods is:

3.0% = ₹148m ÷ ₹5.0b (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2024).

The 'return' refers to a company's earnings over the last year. Another way to think of that is that for every ₹1 worth of equity, the company was able to earn ₹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. We now need to evaluate how much profit the company reinvests or "retains" for future growth which then gives us an idea about the growth potential of the company. 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 Apex Frozen Foods' Earnings Growth And 3.0% ROE

It is quite clear that Apex Frozen Foods' ROE is rather low. Not just that, even compared to the industry average of 11%, the company's ROE is entirely unremarkable. Given the circumstances, the significant decline in net income by 21% seen by Apex Frozen Foods over the last five years is not surprising. We believe that there also might be other aspects that are negatively influencing the company's earnings prospects. Such as - low earnings retention or poor allocation of capital.

That being said, we compared Apex Frozen Foods' performance with the industry and were concerned when we found that while the company has shrunk its earnings, the industry has grown its earnings at a rate of 14% in the same 5-year period.

past-earnings-growth
NSEI:APEX Past Earnings Growth October 16th 2024

Earnings growth is an important metric to consider when valuing a stock. The investor should try to establish if the expected growth or decline in earnings, whichever the case may be, is priced in. By doing so, they will have an idea if the stock is headed into clear blue waters or if swampy waters await. Is Apex Frozen Foods fairly valued compared to other companies? These 3 valuation measures might help you decide.

Is Apex Frozen Foods Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?

Apex Frozen Foods' low three-year median payout ratio of 22% (implying that it retains the remaining 78% of its profits) comes as a surprise when you pair it with the shrinking earnings. The low payout should mean that the company is retaining most of its earnings and consequently, should see some growth. So there could be some other explanations in that regard. For example, the company's business may be deteriorating.

Moreover, Apex Frozen Foods has been paying dividends for six years, which is a considerable amount of time, suggesting that management must have perceived that the shareholders prefer consistent dividends even though earnings have been shrinking.

Conclusion

Overall, we have mixed feelings about Apex Frozen Foods. While the company does have a high rate of profit retention, its low rate of return is probably hampering its earnings growth. Wrapping up, we would proceed with caution with this company and one way of doing that would be to look at the risk profile of the business. To know the 4 risks we have identified for Apex Frozen Foods visit our risks dashboard for free.