Does The Market Have A Low Tolerance For Shufersal Ltd's (TLV:SAE) Mixed Fundamentals?

Simply Wall St · 09/15/2023 04:13

Shufersal (TLV:SAE) has had a rough three months with its share price down 11%. We, however decided to study the company's financials to determine if they have got anything to do with the price decline. Long-term fundamentals are usually what drive market outcomes, so it's worth paying close attention. In this article, we decided to focus on Shufersal's ROE.

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 Shufersal

How To Calculate Return On Equity?

The formula for ROE is:

Return on Equity = Net Profit (from continuing operations) ÷ Shareholders' Equity

So, based on the above formula, the ROE for Shufersal is:

1.4% = ₪46m ÷ ₪3.4b (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2023).

The 'return' is the amount earned after tax over the last twelve months. So, this means that for every ₪1 of its shareholder's investments, the company generates a profit of ₪0.01.

What Is The Relationship Between ROE And Earnings Growth?

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 all else is equal, companies that have both a higher return on equity and higher profit retention are usually the ones that have a higher growth rate when compared to companies that don't have the same features.

Shufersal's Earnings Growth And 1.4% ROE

As you can see, Shufersal's ROE looks pretty weak. Even compared to the average industry ROE of 9.6%, the company's ROE is quite dismal. For this reason, Shufersal's five year net income decline of 12% is not surprising given its lower ROE. However, there could also be other factors causing the earnings to decline. Such as - low earnings retention or poor allocation of capital.

That being said, we compared Shufersal's 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 6.7% in the same 5-year period.

past-earnings-growth
TASE:SAE Past Earnings Growth September 15th 2023

Earnings growth is an important metric to consider when valuing a stock. What investors need to determine next is if the expected earnings growth, or the lack of it, is already built into the share price. This then helps them determine if the stock is placed for a bright or bleak future. Is Shufersal fairly valued compared to other companies? These 3 valuation measures might help you decide.

Is Shufersal Making Efficient Use Of Its Profits?

In spite of a normal three-year median payout ratio of 36% (that is, a retention ratio of 64%), the fact that Shufersal's earnings have shrunk is quite puzzling. So there could be some other explanations in that regard. For instance, the company's business may be deteriorating.

Moreover, Shufersal has been paying dividends for at least ten years or more suggesting that management must have perceived that the shareholders prefer dividends over earnings growth.

Summary

In total, we're a bit ambivalent about Shufersal's performance. 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 5 risks we have identified for Shufersal visit our risks dashboard for free.