Are Strong Financial Prospects The Force That Is Driving The Momentum In PILLAR Corporation's TSE:6490) Stock?
PILLAR (TSE:6490) has had a great run on the share market with its stock up by a significant 17% over the last three months. Given the company's impressive performance, we decided to study its financial indicators more closely as a company's financial health over the long-term usually dictates market outcomes. In this article, we decided to focus on PILLAR'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. Put another way, it reveals the company's success at turning shareholder investments into profits.
How Is ROE Calculated?
The formula for ROE is:
Return on Equity = Net Profit (from continuing operations) ÷ Shareholders' Equity
So, based on the above formula, the ROE for PILLAR is:
11% = JP¥8.5b ÷ JP¥75b (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2025).
The 'return' is the profit over the last twelve months. That means that for every ¥1 worth of shareholders' equity, the company generated ¥0.11 in profit.
Check out our latest analysis for PILLAR
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. 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. 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.
PILLAR's Earnings Growth And 11% ROE
To begin with, PILLAR seems to have a respectable ROE. On comparing with the average industry ROE of 7.7% the company's ROE looks pretty remarkable. Probably as a result of this, PILLAR was able to see a decent growth of 15% over the last five years.
As a next step, we compared PILLAR'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 7.2%.
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. 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 PILLAR is trading on a high P/E or a low P/E, relative to its industry.
Is PILLAR Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?
PILLAR has a healthy combination of a moderate three-year median payout ratio of 32% (or a retention ratio of 68%) 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, PILLAR 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.
Conclusion
On the whole, we feel that PILLAR's performance has been quite good. 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. We also studied the latest analyst forecasts and found that the company's earnings growth is expected be similar to its current growth rate. To know more about the latest analysts predictions for the company, check out this visualization of analyst forecasts for the company.
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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.