It is hard to get excited after looking at Shanghai Milkground Food Tech's (SHSE:600882) recent performance, when its stock has declined 15% over the past three months. However, stock prices are usually driven by a company's financials over the long term, which in this case look pretty respectable. Particularly, we will be paying attention to Shanghai Milkground Food Tech's ROE today.

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. In other words, it is a profitability ratio which measures the rate of return on the capital provided by the company's shareholders.

See our latest analysis for Shanghai Milkground Food Tech

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 Shanghai Milkground Food Tech is:

1.2% = CN¥52m ÷ CN¥4.4b (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2023).

The 'return' refers to a company's earnings over the last year. So, this means that for every CN¥1 of its shareholder's investments, the company generates a profit of CN¥0.01.

Why Is ROE Important For 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.

Shanghai Milkground Food Tech's Earnings Growth And 1.2% ROE

It is hard to argue that Shanghai Milkground Food Tech's ROE is much good in and of itself. Not just that, even compared to the industry average of 8.5%, the company's ROE is entirely unremarkable. However, we we're pleasantly surprised to see that Shanghai Milkground Food Tech grew its net income at a significant rate of 30% in the last five years. Therefore, there could be other reasons behind this growth. Such as - high earnings retention or an efficient management in place.

Next, on comparing with the industry net income growth, we found that Shanghai Milkground Food Tech's growth is quite high when compared to the industry average growth of 7.2% in the same period, which is great to see.

Earnings growth is a huge factor in stock valuation. 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. If you're wondering about Shanghai Milkground Food Tech's's valuation, check out this gauge of its price-to-earnings ratio, as compared to its industry.

Is Shanghai Milkground Food Tech Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?

Shanghai Milkground Food Tech doesn't pay any dividend to its shareholders, meaning that the company has been reinvesting all of its profits into the business. This is likely what's driving the high earnings growth number discussed above.

Summary

On the whole, we do feel that Shanghai Milkground Food Tech has some positive attributes. Even in spite of the low rate of return, the company has posted impressive earnings growth as a result of reinvesting heavily into its business. With that said, the latest industry analyst forecasts reveal that the company's earnings are expected to accelerate. Are these analysts expectations based on the broad expectations for the industry, or on the company's fundamentals? Click here to be taken to our analyst's forecasts page for the company.

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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.