Medlive Technology (HKG:2192) has had a great run on the share market with its stock up by a significant 27% over the last three months. As most would know, fundamentals are what usually guide market price movements over the long-term, so we decided to look at the company's key financial indicators today to determine if they have any role to play in the recent price movement. In this article, we decided to focus on Medlive Technology'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. In short, ROE shows the profit each dollar generates with respect to its shareholder investments.

View our latest analysis for Medlive Technology

How Do You 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 Medlive Technology is:

4.3% = CN¥200m ÷ CN¥4.6b (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2023).

The 'return' refers to a company's earnings over the last year. So, this means that for every HK$1 of its shareholder's investments, the company generates a profit of HK$0.04.

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. 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.

Medlive Technology's Earnings Growth And 4.3% ROE

On the face of it, Medlive Technology's ROE is not much to talk about. A quick further study shows that the company's ROE doesn't compare favorably to the industry average of 11% either. Despite this, surprisingly, Medlive Technology saw an exceptional 36% net income growth over the past five years. We reckon that there could be other factors at play here. Such as - high earnings retention or an efficient management in place.

We then compared Medlive Technology's net income growth with the industry and we're pleased to see that the company's growth figure is higher when compared with the industry which has a growth rate of 22% in the same 5-year period.

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

Is Medlive Technology Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?

The three-year median payout ratio for Medlive Technology is 26%, which is moderately low. The company is retaining the remaining 74%. By the looks of it, the dividend is well covered and Medlive Technology is reinvesting its profits efficiently as evidenced by its exceptional growth which we discussed above.

Along with seeing a growth in earnings, Medlive Technology only recently started paying dividends. Its quite possible that the company was looking to impress its shareholders. Looking at the current analyst consensus data, we can see that the company's future payout ratio is expected to rise to 61% over the next three years. Accordingly, the expected increase in the payout ratio explains the expected decline in the company's ROE to 3.2%, over the same period.

Summary

Overall, we feel that Medlive Technology certainly does have some positive factors to consider. 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. With that said, the latest industry analyst forecasts reveal that the company's earnings growth is expected to slow down. 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.

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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.