Advertisement

Do Fundamentals Have Any Role To Play In Driving Centuria Office REIT's (ASX:COF) Stock Up Recently?

Most readers would already know that Centuria Office REIT's (ASX:COF) stock increased by 6.0% over the past three months. Given that stock prices are usually aligned with a company's financial performance in the long-term, we decided to investigate if the company's decent financials had a hand to play in the recent price move. In this article, we decided to focus on Centuria Office REIT's ROE.

Return on Equity or ROE is a test of how effectively a company is growing its value and managing investors’ money. In short, ROE shows the profit each dollar generates with respect to its shareholder investments.

View our latest analysis for Centuria Office REIT

How Do You Calculate Return On Equity?

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 Centuria Office REIT is:

1.8% = AU$23m ÷ AU$1.3b (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2020).

The 'return' is the yearly profit. Another way to think of that is that for every A$1 worth of equity, the company was able to earn A$0.02 in profit.

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. 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.

Centuria Office REIT's Earnings Growth And 1.8% ROE

As you can see, Centuria Office REIT's ROE looks pretty weak. Even when compared to the industry average of 6.6%, the ROE figure is pretty disappointing. Despite this, surprisingly, Centuria Office REIT saw an exceptional 20% net income growth over the past five years. Therefore, there could be other reasons behind this growth. For instance, the company has a low payout ratio or is being managed efficiently.

As a next step, we compared Centuria Office REIT'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 8.5%.

past-earnings-growth
past-earnings-growth

Earnings growth is a huge factor in stock valuation. The investor should try to establish if the expected growth or decline in earnings, whichever the case may be, is priced in. Doing so will help them establish if the stock's future looks promising or ominous. Has the market priced in the future outlook for COF? You can find out in our latest intrinsic value infographic research report.

Is Centuria Office REIT Making Efficient Use Of Its Profits?

Centuria Office REIT seems to be paying out most of its income as dividends judging by its three-year median payout ratio of 85%, meaning the company retains only 15% of its income. However, this is typical for REITs as they are often required by law to distribute most of their earnings. In spite of this, the company was able to grow its earnings significantly, as we saw above.

Besides, Centuria Office REIT has been paying dividends over a period of five years. This shows that the company is committed to sharing profits with its shareholders. Upon studying the latest analysts' consensus data, we found that the company is expected to keep paying out approximately 92% of its profits over the next three years. Regardless, the future ROE for Centuria Office REIT is predicted to rise to 7.5% despite there being not much change expected in its payout ratio.

Conclusion

In total, it does look like Centuria Office REIT has some positive aspects to its business. While no doubt its earnings growth is pretty substantial, we do feel that the reinvestment rate is pretty low, meaning, the earnings growth number could have been significantly higher had the company been retaining more of its profits. That being so, the latest analyst forecasts show that the company will continue to see an expansion in its earnings. 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.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com.