Did you know there are some financial metrics that can provide clues of a potential multi-bagger? Ideally, a business will show two trends; firstly a growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and secondly, an increasing amount of capital employed. This shows us that it's a compounding machine, able to continually reinvest its earnings back into the business and generate higher returns. So on that note, Chongqing Machinery & Electric (HKG:2722) looks quite promising in regards to its trends of return on capital.

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. The formula for this calculation on Chongqing Machinery & Electric is:

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

0.026 = CN¥265m ÷ (CN¥18b - CN¥7.4b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2024).

Thus, Chongqing Machinery & Electric has an ROCE of 2.6%. Even though it's in line with the industry average of 3.3%, it's still a low return by itself.

Check out our latest analysis for Chongqing Machinery & Electric

Historical performance is a great place to start when researching a stock so above you can see the gauge for Chongqing Machinery & Electric's ROCE against it's prior returns. If you want to delve into the historical earnings , check out these free graphs detailing revenue and cash flow performance of Chongqing Machinery & Electric.

How Are Returns Trending?

Even though ROCE is still low in absolute terms, it's good to see it's heading in the right direction. The figures show that over the last five years, ROCE has grown 283% whilst employing roughly the same amount of capital. So it's likely that the business is now reaping the full benefits of its past investments, since the capital employed hasn't changed considerably. The company is doing well in that sense, and it's worth investigating what the management team has planned for long term growth prospects.

Another thing to note, Chongqing Machinery & Electric has a high ratio of current liabilities to total assets of 42%. This effectively means that suppliers (or short-term creditors) are funding a large portion of the business, so just be aware that this can introduce some elements of risk. While it's not necessarily a bad thing, it can be beneficial if this ratio is lower.

The Key Takeaway

To sum it up, Chongqing Machinery & Electric is collecting higher returns from the same amount of capital, and that's impressive. And a remarkable 174% total return over the last five years tells us that investors are expecting more good things to come in the future. With that being said, we still think the promising fundamentals mean the company deserves some further due diligence.

Chongqing Machinery & Electric does have some risks, we noticed 2 warning signs (and 1 which is a bit concerning) we think you should know about.

For those who like to invest in solid companies, check out this free list of companies with solid balance sheets and high returns on equity.

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