Is Keystone Law Group plc's (LON:KEYS) Recent Stock Performance Tethered To Its Strong Fundamentals?

In This Article:

Keystone Law Group's (LON:KEYS) stock is up by a considerable 19% over the past three months. Since the market usually pay for a company’s long-term fundamentals, we decided to study the company’s key performance indicators to see if they could be influencing the market. Specifically, we decided to study Keystone Law Group's ROE in this article.

Return on Equity or ROE is a test of how effectively a company is growing its value and managing investors’ money. Put another way, it reveals the company's success at turning shareholder investments into profits.

View our latest analysis for Keystone Law Group

How Is ROE Calculated?

ROE 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 Keystone Law Group is:

45% = UK£7.6m ÷ UK£17m (Based on the trailing twelve months to January 2024).

The 'return' is the income the business earned over the last year. So, this means that for every £1 of its shareholder's investments, the company generates a profit of £0.45.

Why Is ROE Important For Earnings Growth?

So far, we've learned that ROE is a measure of a company's profitability. 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. 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.

A Side By Side comparison of Keystone Law Group's Earnings Growth And 45% ROE

Firstly, we acknowledge that Keystone Law Group has a significantly high ROE. Second, a comparison with the average ROE reported by the industry of 14% also doesn't go unnoticed by us. Probably as a result of this, Keystone Law Group was able to see a decent net income growth of 16% over the last five years.

We then compared Keystone Law Group'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 11% in the same 5-year period.

past-earnings-growth
AIM:KEYS Past Earnings Growth April 22nd 2024

Earnings growth is an important metric to consider when valuing a stock. The investor should try to establish if the expected growth or decline in earnings, whichever the case may be, is priced in. This then helps them determine if the stock is placed for a bright or bleak future. One good indicator of expected earnings growth is the P/E ratio which determines the price the market is willing to pay for a stock based on its earnings prospects. So, you may want to check if Keystone Law Group is trading on a high P/E or a low P/E, relative to its industry.