There are a few key trends to look for if we want to identify the next 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. Ultimately, this demonstrates that it's a business that is reinvesting profits at increasing rates of return. Although, when we looked at Flat Glass Group (HKG:6865), it didn't seem to tick all of these boxes.

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. To calculate this metric for Flat Glass Group, this is the formula:

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

0.083 = CN¥2.9b ÷ (CN¥44b - CN¥9.1b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2024).

So, Flat Glass Group has an ROCE of 8.3%. In absolute terms, that's a low return, but it's much better than the Semiconductor industry average of 6.1%.

See our latest analysis for Flat Glass Group

Above you can see how the current ROCE for Flat Glass Group compares to its prior returns on capital, but there's only so much you can tell from the past. If you'd like to see what analysts are forecasting going forward, you should check out our free analyst report for Flat Glass Group .

What The Trend Of ROCE Can Tell Us

When we looked at the ROCE trend at Flat Glass Group, we didn't gain much confidence. To be more specific, ROCE has fallen from 16% over the last five years. However it looks like Flat Glass Group might be reinvesting for long term growth because while capital employed has increased, the company's sales haven't changed much in the last 12 months. It's worth keeping an eye on the company's earnings from here on to see if these investments do end up contributing to the bottom line.

On a side note, Flat Glass Group has done well to pay down its current liabilities to 21% of total assets. So we could link some of this to the decrease in ROCE. What's more, this can reduce some aspects of risk to the business because now the company's suppliers or short-term creditors are funding less of its operations. Some would claim this reduces the business' efficiency at generating ROCE since it is now funding more of the operations with its own money.

The Bottom Line On Flat Glass Group's ROCE

Bringing it all together, while we're somewhat encouraged by Flat Glass Group's reinvestment in its own business, we're aware that returns are shrinking. Investors must think there's better things to come because the stock has knocked it out of the park, delivering a 188% gain to shareholders who have held over the last five years. But if the trajectory of these underlying trends continue, we think the likelihood of it being a multi-bagger from here isn't high.

On a separate note, we've found 3 warning signs for Flat Glass Group you'll probably want to know about.

While Flat Glass Group 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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