Karat Packaging's (NASDAQ:KRT) stock is up by a considerable 9.0% over the past month. 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 Karat Packaging's ROE.

ROE or return on equity is a useful tool to assess how effectively a company can generate returns on the investment it received from its shareholders. In simpler terms, it measures the profitability of a company in relation to shareholder's equity.

Check out our latest analysis for Karat Packaging

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 Karat Packaging is:

18% = US$29m ÷ US$164m (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2024).

The 'return' refers to a company's earnings over the last year. Another way to think of that is that for every $1 worth of equity, the company was able to earn $0.18 in profit.

Why Is ROE Important For Earnings Growth?

So far, we've learned that ROE is a measure of a company's profitability. We now need to evaluate how much profit the company reinvests or "retains" for future growth which then gives us an idea about the growth potential of the company. 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.

Karat Packaging's Earnings Growth And 18% ROE

At first glance, Karat Packaging seems to have a decent ROE. And on comparing with the industry, we found that the the average industry ROE is similar at 16%. Consequently, this likely laid the ground for the impressive net income growth of 32% seen over the past five years by Karat Packaging. However, there could also be other drivers behind this growth. 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 Karat Packaging'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 25%.

The basis for attaching value to a company is, to a great extent, tied to its earnings growth. It’s important for an investor to know whether the market has priced in the company's expected earnings growth (or decline). 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 Karat Packaging is trading on a high P/E or a low P/E, relative to its industry.