Will Weakness in COWAY Co., Ltd.'s (KRX:021240) Stock Prove Temporary Given Strong Fundamentals?

With its stock down 15% over the past three months, it is easy to disregard COWAY (KRX:021240). But if you pay close attention, you might gather that its strong financials could mean that the stock could potentially see an increase in value in the long-term, given how markets usually reward companies with good financial health. Particularly, we will be paying attention to COWAY's ROE today.

Return on equity or ROE is a key measure used to assess how efficiently a company's management is utilizing the company's capital. Put another way, it reveals the company's success at turning shareholder investments into profits.

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How To Calculate Return On Equity?

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 COWAY is:

17% = ₩574b ÷ ₩3.4t (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2025).

The 'return' refers to a company's earnings over the last year. One way to conceptualize this is that for each ₩1 of shareholders' capital it has, the company made ₩0.17 in profit.

View our latest analysis for COWAY

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. We now need to evaluate how much profit the company reinvests or "retains" for future growth which then gives us an idea about the growth potential of the company. 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.

COWAY's Earnings Growth And 17% ROE

To start with, COWAY's ROE looks acceptable. On comparing with the average industry ROE of 5.8% the company's ROE looks pretty remarkable. Probably as a result of this, COWAY was able to see a decent growth of 7.3% over the last five years.

As a next step, we compared COWAY's net income growth with the industry, and pleasingly, we found that the growth seen by the company is higher than the average industry growth of 3.7%.

The basis for attaching value to a company is, to a great extent, tied to its earnings growth. 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. Has the market priced in the future outlook for A021240? You can find out in our latest intrinsic value infographic research report.

Is COWAY Using Its Retained Earnings Effectively?

COWAY's three-year median payout ratio to shareholders is 21% (implying that it retains 79% of its income), which is on the lower side, so it seems like the management is reinvesting profits heavily to grow its business.

Besides, COWAY has been paying dividends for at least ten years or more. This shows that the company is committed to sharing profits with its shareholders. Looking at the current analyst consensus data, we can see that the company's future payout ratio is expected to rise to 32% over the next three years. Regardless, the ROE is not expected to change much for the company despite the higher expected payout ratio.

Conclusion

In total, we are pretty happy with COWAY'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. That being so, the latest analyst forecasts show that the company will continue to see an expansion in its earnings. To know more about the latest analysts predictions for the company, check out this visualization of analyst forecasts 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.