JW Pharmaceutical's (KRX:001060) stock is up by a considerable 34% over the past three months. Since the market usually pay for a company’s long-term fundamentals, we decided to study the company’s key performance indicators to see if they could be influencing the market. Particularly, we will be paying attention to JW Pharmaceutical'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.
ROE 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 JW Pharmaceutical is:
18% = ₩63b ÷ ₩354b (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2025).
The 'return' refers to a company's earnings over the last year. One way to conceptualize this is that for each ₩1 of shareholders' capital it has, the company made ₩0.18 in profit.
View our latest analysis for JW Pharmaceutical
So far, we've learned that ROE is a measure of a company's profitability. 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.
To start with, JW Pharmaceutical's ROE looks acceptable. Further, the company's ROE compares quite favorably to the industry average of 6.4%. Probably as a result of this, JW Pharmaceutical was able to see an impressive net income growth of 57% over the last 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 JW Pharmaceutical'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 8.3%.
Earnings growth is a huge factor in stock valuation. It’s important for an investor to know whether the market has priced in the company's expected earnings growth (or decline). By doing so, they will have an idea if the stock is headed into clear blue waters or if swampy waters await. If you're wondering about JW Pharmaceutical's's valuation, check out this gauge of its price-to-earnings ratio, as compared to its industry.
JW Pharmaceutical has a really low three-year median payout ratio of 18%, meaning that it has the remaining 82% left over to reinvest into its business. So it seems like the management is reinvesting profits heavily to grow its business and this reflects in its earnings growth number.
Besides, JW Pharmaceutical has been paying dividends over a period of nine years. This shows that the company is committed to sharing profits with its shareholders.
On the whole, we feel that JW Pharmaceutical's performance has been quite good. Particularly, we like that the company is reinvesting heavily into its business, and at a high rate of return. Unsurprisingly, this has led to an impressive earnings growth.
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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. 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.