S.C. Fimaro S.A. (BVB:FIMA) Stock Is Going Strong But Fundamentals Look Uncertain: What Lies Ahead ?

Simply Wall St · 10/18 06:25

S.C. Fimaro (BVB:FIMA) has had a great run on the share market with its stock up by a significant 30% over the last week. However, we wonder if the company's inconsistent financials would have any adverse impact on the current share price momentum. Particularly, we will be paying attention to S.C. Fimaro's ROE today.

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 simpler terms, it measures the profitability of a company in relation to shareholder's equity.

See our latest analysis for S.C. Fimaro

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 S.C. Fimaro is:

1.0% = RON87k ÷ RON8.7m (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2024).

The 'return' refers to a company's earnings over the last year. So, this means that for every RON1 of its shareholder's investments, the company generates a profit of RON0.01.

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. Generally speaking, other things being equal, firms with a high return on equity and profit retention, have a higher growth rate than firms that don’t share these attributes.

A Side By Side comparison of S.C. Fimaro's Earnings Growth And 1.0% ROE

It is quite clear that S.C. Fimaro's ROE is rather low. Even when compared to the industry average of 4.2%, the ROE figure is pretty disappointing. For this reason, S.C. Fimaro's five year net income decline of 52% is not surprising given its lower ROE. 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.

However, when we compared S.C. Fimaro's growth with the industry we found that while the company's earnings have been shrinking, the industry has seen an earnings growth of 3.6% in the same period. This is quite worrisome.

past-earnings-growth
BVB:FIMA Past Earnings Growth October 18th 2024

The basis for attaching value to a company is, to a great extent, tied to its earnings growth. The investor should try to establish if the expected growth or decline in earnings, whichever the case may be, is priced in. This then helps them determine if the stock is placed for a bright or bleak future. Is S.C. Fimaro fairly valued compared to other companies? These 3 valuation measures might help you decide.

Is S.C. Fimaro Using Its Retained Earnings Effectively?

S.C. Fimaro doesn't pay any regular dividends, meaning that the company is keeping all of its profits, which makes us wonder why it is retaining its earnings if it can't use them to grow its business. So there might be other factors at play here which could potentially be hampering growth. For example, the business has faced some headwinds.

Conclusion

Overall, we have mixed feelings about S.C. Fimaro. Even though it appears to be retaining most of its profits, given the low ROE, investors may not be benefitting from all that reinvestment after all. The low earnings growth suggests our theory correct. 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 S.C. Fimaro visit our risks dashboard for free.