There are a few key trends to look for if we want to identify the next multi-bagger. Typically, we'll want to notice a trend of growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and alongside that, an expanding base of capital employed. Ultimately, this demonstrates that it's a business that is reinvesting profits at increasing rates of return. In light of that, when we looked at Thakral (SGX:AWI) and its ROCE trend, we weren't exactly thrilled.

Return On Capital Employed (ROCE): What Is It?

If you haven't worked with ROCE before, it measures the 'return' (pre-tax profit) a company generates from capital employed in its business. Analysts use this formula to calculate it for Thakral:

Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) ÷ (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)

0.065 = S$17m ÷ (S$329m - S$71m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2024).

Therefore, Thakral has an ROCE of 6.5%. On its own that's a low return, but compared to the average of 5.0% generated by the Retail Distributors industry, it's much better.

See our latest analysis for Thakral

While the past is not representative of the future, it can be helpful to know how a company has performed historically, which is why we have this chart above. If you're interested in investigating Thakral's past further, check out this free graph covering Thakral's past earnings, revenue and cash flow.

So How Is Thakral's ROCE Trending?

There are better returns on capital out there than what we're seeing at Thakral. Over the past five years, ROCE has remained relatively flat at around 6.5% and the business has deployed 20% more capital into its operations. Given the company has increased the amount of capital employed, it appears the investments that have been made simply don't provide a high return on capital.

The Key Takeaway

In summary, Thakral has simply been reinvesting capital and generating the same low rate of return as before. Yet to long term shareholders the stock has gifted them an incredible 150% return in the last five years, so the market appears to be rosy about its future. However, unless these underlying trends turn more positive, we wouldn't get our hopes up too high.

If you want to continue researching Thakral, you might be interested to know about the 5 warning signs that our analysis has discovered.

While Thakral may not currently earn the highest returns, we've compiled a list of companies that currently earn more than 25% return on equity. Check out this free list here.

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