Yahoo Finance Declining Stock and Decent Financials: Is The Market Wrong About Atlas Engineered Products Ltd. (CVE:AEP)?
With its stock down 25% over the past three months, it is easy to disregard Atlas Engineered Products (CVE:AEP). However, the company's fundamentals look pretty decent, and long-term financials are usually aligned with future market price movements. Specifically, we decided to study Atlas Engineered Products' 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. Put another way, it reveals the company's success at turning shareholder investments into profits.
Check out our latest analysis for Atlas Engineered Products
How To Calculate Return On Equity?
The formula for return on equity is:
Return on Equity = Net Profit (from continuing operations) ÷ Shareholders' Equity
So, based on the above formula, the ROE for Atlas Engineered Products is:
1.8% = CA$229k ÷ CA$13m (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2020).
The 'return' refers to a company's earnings over the last year. So, this means that for every CA$1 of its shareholder's investments, the company generates a profit of CA$0.02.
Why Is ROE Important For Earnings Growth?
So far, we've learned that ROE is a measure of a company's profitability. Depending on how much of these profits the company reinvests or "retains", and how effectively it does so, we are then able to assess a company’s earnings growth potential. 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.
A Side By Side comparison of Atlas Engineered Products' Earnings Growth And 1.8% ROE
It is quite clear that Atlas Engineered Products' ROE is rather low. Not just that, even compared to the industry average of 15%, the company's ROE is entirely unremarkable. However, the moderate 17% net income growth seen by Atlas Engineered Products over the past five years is definitely a positive. Therefore, the growth in earnings could probably have been caused by other variables. For instance, the company has a low payout ratio or is being managed efficiently.
When you consider the fact that the industry earnings have shrunk at a rate of 0.2% in the same period, the company's net income growth is pretty remarkable.
The basis for attaching value to a company is, to a great extent, tied to its earnings growth. 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. Is Atlas Engineered Products fairly valued compared to other companies? These 3 valuation measures might help you decide.
Is Atlas Engineered Products Making Efficient Use Of Its Profits?
Conclusion
On the whole, we do feel that Atlas Engineered Products has some positive attributes. Despite its low rate of return, the fact that the company reinvests a very high portion of its profits into its business, no doubt contributed to its high earnings growth. While we won't completely dismiss the company, what we would do, is try to ascertain how risky the business is to make a more informed decision around the company. Our risks dashboard would have the 4 risks we have identified for Atlas Engineered Products.
This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. 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.
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