Nestlé India Limited (NSE:NESTLEIND) On An Uptrend: Could Fundamentals Be Driving The Stock?
Nestlé India's (NSE:NESTLEIND) stock up by 9.3% over the past three months. As most would know, long-term fundamentals have a strong correlation with market price movements, so we decided to look at the company's key financial indicators today to determine if they have any role to play in the recent price movement. Particularly, we will be paying attention to Nestlé India's ROE today.
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. Simply put, it is used to assess the profitability of a company in relation to its equity capital.
How Is ROE Calculated?
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 Nestlé India is:
67% = ₹30b ÷ ₹44b (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2025).
The 'return' refers to a company's earnings over the last year. So, this means that for every ₹1 of its shareholder's investments, the company generates a profit of ₹0.67.
See our latest analysis for Nestlé India
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. 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.
Nestlé India's Earnings Growth And 67% ROE
To begin with, Nestlé India has a pretty high ROE which is interesting. Additionally, the company's ROE is higher compared to the industry average of 11% which is quite remarkable. This likely paved the way for the modest 11% net income growth seen by Nestlé India over the past five years.
As a next step, we compared Nestlé India's net income growth with the industry and were disappointed to see that the company's growth is lower than the industry average growth of 20% in the same period.
The basis for attaching value to a company is, to a great extent, tied to its earnings growth. 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 Nestlé India is trading on a high P/E or a low P/E, relative to its industry.
Is Nestlé India Using Its Retained Earnings Effectively?
The high three-year median payout ratio of 83% (or a retention ratio of 17%) for Nestlé India suggests that the company's growth wasn't really hampered despite it returning most of its income to its shareholders.
Besides, Nestlé India has been paying dividends for at least ten years or more. This shows that the company is committed to sharing profits with its shareholders. Based on the latest analysts' estimates, we found that the company's future payout ratio over the next three years is expected to hold steady at 75%. Still, forecasts suggest that Nestlé India's future ROE will rise to 82% even though the the company's payout ratio is not expected to change by much.
Conclusion
Overall, we feel that Nestlé India certainly does have some positive factors to consider. The company has grown its earnings moderately as previously discussed. Still, the high ROE could have been even more beneficial to investors had the company been reinvesting more of its profits. As highlighted earlier, the current reinvestment rate appears to be quite low. That being so, the latest analyst forecasts show that the company will continue to see an expansion in its earnings. 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.