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Mega First Corporation Berhad's (KLSE:MFCB) Stock Is Going Strong: Is the Market Following Fundamentals?

Mega First Corporation Berhad (KLSE:MFCB) has had a great run on the share market with its stock up by a significant 5.2% over the last month. 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. In this article, we decided to focus on Mega First Corporation Berhad's ROE.

Return on equity or ROE is an important factor to be considered by a shareholder because it tells them how effectively their capital is being reinvested. Simply put, it is used to assess the profitability of a company in relation to its equity capital.

View our latest analysis for Mega First Corporation Berhad

How Is ROE Calculated?

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 Mega First Corporation Berhad is:

19% = RM596m ÷ RM3.2b (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2022).

The 'return' is the yearly profit. Another way to think of that is that for every MYR1 worth of equity, the company was able to earn MYR0.19 in profit.

What Has ROE Got To Do With Earnings Growth?

Thus far, we have learned that ROE measures how efficiently a company is generating its profits. 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.

Mega First Corporation Berhad's Earnings Growth And 19% ROE

To start with, Mega First Corporation Berhad's ROE looks acceptable. Especially when compared to the industry average of 9.6% the company's ROE looks pretty impressive. Probably as a result of this, Mega First Corporation Berhad was able to see an impressive net income growth of 34% over the last five years. We believe that there might also be other aspects that are positively influencing the company's earnings growth. Such as - high earnings retention or an efficient management in place.

Next, on comparing with the industry net income growth, we found that Mega First Corporation Berhad's growth is quite high when compared to the industry average growth of 12% in the same period, which is great to see.

past-earnings-growth
past-earnings-growth

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). Doing so will help them establish if the stock's future looks promising or ominous. Is Mega First Corporation Berhad fairly valued compared to other companies? These 3 valuation measures might help you decide.

Is Mega First Corporation Berhad Making Efficient Use Of Its Profits?

Mega First Corporation Berhad has a really low three-year median payout ratio of 16%, meaning that it has the remaining 84% left over to reinvest into its business. This suggests that the management is reinvesting most of the profits to grow the business as evidenced by the growth seen by the company.

Moreover, Mega First Corporation Berhad is determined to keep sharing its profits with shareholders which we infer from its long history of paying a dividend for at least ten years. Looking at the current analyst consensus data, we can see that the company's future payout ratio is expected to rise to 21% over the next three years. Consequently, the higher expected payout ratio explains the decline in the company's expected ROE (to 13%) over the same period.

Summary

Overall, we are quite pleased with Mega First Corporation Berhad's performance. Specifically, we like that the company is reinvesting a huge chunk of its profits at a high rate of return. This of course has caused the company to see substantial growth in its earnings. Having said that, on studying current analyst estimates, we were concerned to see that while the company has grown its earnings in the past, analysts expect its earnings to shrink in the future. To know more about the company's future earnings growth forecasts take a look at this free report on analyst forecasts for the company to find out more.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.

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.

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