Card Factory plc (LON:CARD) Stock Has Shown Weakness Lately But Financials Look Strong: Should Prospective Shareholders Make The Leap?

editorial-team@simplywallst.com (Simply Wall St)

Mon, Nov 11, 2024, 7:28 AM 3 min read

It is hard to get excited after looking at Card Factory's (LON:CARD) recent performance, when its stock has declined 32% over the past three months. However, a closer look at its sound financials might cause you to think again. Given that fundamentals usually drive long-term market outcomes, the company is worth looking at. In this article, we decided to focus on Card Factory's ROE.

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. Put another way, it reveals the company's success at turning shareholder investments into profits.

Check out our latest analysis for Card Factory

How To Calculate Return On Equity?

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 Card Factory is:

13% = UK£41m ÷ UK£312m (Based on the trailing twelve months to July 2024).

The 'return' refers to a company's earnings over the last year. That means that for every £1 worth of shareholders' equity, the company generated £0.13 in profit.

What Has ROE Got To Do With Earnings Growth?

Thus far, we have learned that ROE measures how efficiently a company is generating its profits. Based on how much of its profits the company chooses to reinvest or "retain", we are then able to evaluate a company's future ability to generate profits. 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.

A Side By Side comparison of Card Factory's Earnings Growth And 13% ROE

To begin with, Card Factory seems to have a respectable ROE. Further, the company's ROE compares quite favorably to the industry average of 8.0%. This certainly adds some context to Card Factory's decent 15% net income growth seen over the past five years.

Next, on comparing with the industry net income growth, we found that Card Factory's growth is quite high when compared to the industry average growth of 10% in the same period, which is great to see.

past-earnings-growth — LSE:CARD Past Earnings Growth November 11th 2024

Earnings growth is a huge factor in stock valuation. 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. Is Card Factory fairly valued compared to other companies? These 3 valuation measures might help you decide.

Is Card Factory Making Efficient Use Of Its Profits?

Card Factory has a healthy combination of a moderate three-year median payout ratio of 39% (or a retention ratio of 61%) and a respectable amount of growth in earnings as we saw above, meaning that the company has been making efficient use of its profits.

Moreover, Card Factory is determined to keep sharing its profits with shareholders which we infer from its long history of paying a dividend for at least ten years. Our latest analyst data shows that the future payout ratio of the company over the next three years is expected to be approximately 36%. Therefore, the company's future ROE is also not expected to change by much with analysts predicting an ROE of 15%.

Conclusion

Overall, we are quite pleased with Card Factory's performance. In particular, it's great to see that the company is investing heavily into its business and along with a high rate of return, that has resulted in a sizeable growth in its earnings. On studying current analyst estimates, we found that analysts expect the company to continue its recent growth streak. 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.