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Is Camtek Ltd.'s (NASDAQ:CAMT) Stock's Recent Performance Being Led By Its Attractive Financial Prospects?

Camtek (NASDAQ:CAMT) has had a great run on the share market with its stock up by a significant 25% over the last three months. Given that the market rewards strong financials in the long-term, we wonder if that is the case in this instance. In this article, we decided to focus on Camtek's ROE.

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 Camtek

How Do You 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 Camtek is:

12% = US$17m ÷ US$146m (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2020).

The 'return' is the amount earned after tax over the last twelve months. So, this means that for every $1 of its shareholder's investments, the company generates a profit of $0.12.

What Has ROE Got To Do With Earnings Growth?

We have already established that ROE serves as an efficient profit-generating gauge for a company's future earnings. 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.

Camtek's Earnings Growth And 12% ROE

At first glance, Camtek seems to have a decent ROE. Even when compared to the industry average of 11% the company's ROE looks quite decent. This probably goes some way in explaining Camtek's significant 59% net income growth over the past five years amongst other factors. We reckon that there could also be other factors at play here. For example, it is possible that the company's management has made some good strategic decisions, or that the company has a low payout ratio.

As a next step, we compared Camtek'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 16%.

past-earnings-growth
past-earnings-growth

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). By doing so, they will have an idea if the stock is headed into clear blue waters or if swampy waters await. If you're wondering about Camtek's's valuation, check out this gauge of its price-to-earnings ratio, as compared to its industry.

Is Camtek Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?

Camtek's three-year median payout ratio is a pretty moderate 35%, meaning the company retains 65% of its income. This suggests that its dividend is well covered, and given the high growth we discussed above, it looks like Camtek is reinvesting its earnings efficiently.

Besides, Camtek has been paying dividends over a period of three years. This shows that the company is committed to sharing profits with its shareholders.

Summary

In total, we are pretty happy with Camtek's performance. Particularly, we like that the company is reinvesting heavily into its business, and at a high rate of return. Unsurprisingly, this has led to an impressive earnings growth. Having said that, the company's earnings growth is expected to slow down, as forecasted in the current analyst estimates. 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.

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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