CI&T Inc's (NYSE:CINT) Stock On An Uptrend: Could Fundamentals Be Driving The Momentum?

Simply Wall St · 09/15/2023 10:07

Most readers would already be aware that CI&T's (NYSE:CINT) stock increased significantly by 26% over the past month. Given that stock prices are usually aligned with a company's financial performance in the long-term, we decided to study its financial indicators more closely to see if they had a hand to play in the recent price move. Specifically, we decided to study CI&T'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. In short, ROE shows the profit each dollar generates with respect to its shareholder investments.

Check out our latest analysis for CI&T

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 CI&T is:

12% = R$171m ÷ R$1.4b (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2023).

The 'return' is the profit over the last twelve months. One way to conceptualize this is that for each $1 of shareholders' capital it has, the company made $0.12 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. Depending on how much of these profits the company reinvests or "retains", and how effectively it does so, we are then able to assess a company’s earnings growth potential. Assuming all else is equal, companies that have both a higher return on equity and higher profit retention are usually the ones that have a higher growth rate when compared to companies that don't have the same features.

A Side By Side comparison of CI&T's Earnings Growth And 12% ROE

To begin with, CI&T seems to have a respectable ROE. Even so, when compared with the average industry ROE of 16%, we aren't very excited. CI&T was still able to see a decent net income growth of 16% over the past five years. Therefore, the growth in earnings could probably have been caused by other variables. 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. However, not to forget, the company does have a decent ROE to begin with, just that it is lower than the industry average. So this also provides some context to the earnings growth seen by the company.

We then compared CI&T's net income growth with the industry and found that the company's growth figure is lower than the average industry growth rate of 23% in the same 5-year period, which is a bit concerning.

past-earnings-growth
NYSE:CINT Past Earnings Growth September 15th 2023

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. By doing so, they will have an idea if the stock is headed into clear blue waters or if swampy waters await. Is CI&T fairly valued compared to other companies? These 3 valuation measures might help you decide.

Is CI&T Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?

CI&T doesn't pay any dividend, meaning that all of its profits are being reinvested in the business, which explains the fair bit of earnings growth the company has seen.

Summary

On the whole, we do feel that CI&T has some positive attributes. Particularly, its earnings have grown respectably as we saw earlier, which was likely achieved due to the company reinvesting most of its earnings at a decent rate of return, to grow its business. With that said, the latest industry analyst forecasts reveal that the company's earnings growth is expected to slow down. To know more about the latest analysts predictions for the company, check out this visualization of analyst forecasts for the company.