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Sunland Group Limited's (ASX:SDG) Stock Financial Prospects Look Bleak: Should Shareholders Be Prepared For A Share Price Correction?

Sunland Group's (ASX:SDG) stock is up by 3.7% over the past month. Given that the markets usually pay for the long-term financial health of a company, we wonder if the current momentum in the share price will keep up, given that the company's financials don't look very promising. Specifically, we decided to study Sunland Group's ROE in this article.

Return on equity or ROE is a key measure used to assess how efficiently a company's management is utilizing the company's capital. Simply put, it is used to assess the profitability of a company in relation to its equity capital.

See our latest analysis for Sunland Group

How Do You Calculate Return On 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 Sunland Group is:

8.0% = AU$25m ÷ AU$312m (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2021).

The 'return' refers to a company's earnings over the last year. So, this means that for every A$1 of its shareholder's investments, the company generates a profit of A$0.08.

What Is The Relationship Between ROE And Earnings Growth?

We have already established that ROE serves as an efficient profit-generating gauge for a company's future earnings. 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. 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 Sunland Group's Earnings Growth And 8.0% ROE

At first glance, Sunland Group's ROE doesn't look very promising. However, given that the company's ROE is similar to the average industry ROE of 6.9%, we may spare it some thought. Having said that, Sunland Group's five year net income decline rate was 26%. Bear in mind, the company does have a slightly low ROE. Hence, this goes some way in explaining the shrinking earnings.

As a next step, we compared Sunland Group's performance with the industry and found thatSunland Group's performance is depressing even when compared with the industry, which has shrunk its earnings at a rate of 4.7% in the same period, which is a slower than the company.

past-earnings-growth
past-earnings-growth

Earnings growth is an important metric to consider when valuing a stock. The investor should try to establish if the expected growth or decline in earnings, whichever the case may be, is priced in. Doing so will help them establish if the stock's future looks promising or ominous. One good indicator of expected earnings growth is the P/E ratio which determines the price the market is willing to pay for a stock based on its earnings prospects. So, you may want to check if Sunland Group is trading on a high P/E or a low P/E, relative to its industry.

Is Sunland Group Using Its Retained Earnings Effectively?

With a high three-year median payout ratio of 67% (implying that 33% of the profits are retained), most of Sunland Group's profits are being paid to shareholders, which explains the company's shrinking earnings. With only a little being reinvested into the business, earnings growth would obviously be low or non-existent. To know the 3 risks we have identified for Sunland Group visit our risks dashboard for free.

Moreover, Sunland Group has been paying dividends for eight years, which is a considerable amount of time, suggesting that management must have perceived that the shareholders prefer consistent dividends even though earnings have been shrinking. Existing analyst estimates suggest that the company's future payout ratio is expected to drop to 40% over the next three years. As a result, the expected drop in Sunland Group's payout ratio explains the anticipated rise in the company's future ROE to 19%, over the same period.

Conclusion

On the whole, Sunland Group's performance is quite a big let-down. Because the company is not reinvesting much into the business, and given the low ROE, it's not surprising to see the lack or absence of growth in its earnings. So far, we've only made a quick discussion around the company's earnings growth. You can do your own research on Sunland Group and see how it has performed in the past by looking at this FREE detailed graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flows.

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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