Alfa Financial Software Holdings PLC's (LON:ALFA) Stock Is Going Strong: Have Financials A Role To Play?

Alfa Financial Software Holdings' (LON:ALFA) stock is up by a considerable 72% over the past three months. We wonder if and what role the company's financials play in that price change as a company's long-term fundamentals usually dictate market outcomes. Particularly, we will be paying attention to Alfa Financial Software Holdings' ROE today.

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 Alfa Financial Software Holdings

How Is ROE Calculated?

Return on equity 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 Alfa Financial Software Holdings is:

15% = UK£14m ÷ UK£92m (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2020).

The 'return' is the profit over the last twelve months. So, this means that for every £1 of its shareholder's investments, the company generates a profit of £0.15.

What Is The Relationship Between ROE And Earnings Growth?

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

Alfa Financial Software Holdings' Earnings Growth And 15% ROE

To start with, Alfa Financial Software Holdings' ROE looks acceptable. Especially when compared to the industry average of 9.1% the company's ROE looks pretty impressive. Given the circumstances, we can't help but wonder why Alfa Financial Software Holdings saw little to no growth in the past five years. Based on this, we feel that there might be other reasons which haven't been discussed so far in this article that could be hampering the company's growth. These include low earnings retention or poor allocation of capital.

As a next step, we compared Alfa Financial Software Holdings' net income growth with the industry and discovered that the industry saw an average growth of 13% in the same period.

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. If you're wondering about Alfa Financial Software Holdings''s valuation, check out this gauge of its price-to-earnings ratio, as compared to its industry.

Is Alfa Financial Software Holdings Using Its Retained Earnings Effectively?

Summary

On the whole, we do feel that Alfa Financial Software Holdings has some positive attributes. Although, we are disappointed to see a lack of growth in earnings even in spite of a high ROE and and a high reinvestment rate. We believe that there might be some outside factors that could be having a negative impact on the business. In addition, on studying the latest analyst forecasts, we found that the company's earnings are expected to continue to shrink. 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.

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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