There are a few key trends to look for if we want to identify the next multi-bagger. One common approach is to try and find a company with returns on capital employed (ROCE) that are increasing, in conjunction with a growing amount of capital employed. Ultimately, this demonstrates that it's a business that is reinvesting profits at increasing rates of return. With that in mind, the ROCE of Fufeng Group (HKG:546) looks great, so lets see what the trend can tell us.

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

Just to clarify if you're unsure, ROCE is a metric for evaluating how much pre-tax income (in percentage terms) a company earns on the capital invested in its business. To calculate this metric for Fufeng Group, this is the formula:

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

0.22 = CN¥3.9b ÷ (CN¥27b - CN¥8.8b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2023).

Thus, Fufeng Group has an ROCE of 22%. In absolute terms that's a great return and it's even better than the Chemicals industry average of 9.3%.

See our latest analysis for Fufeng Group

In the above chart we have measured Fufeng Group's prior ROCE against its prior performance, but the future is arguably more important. If you're interested, you can view the analysts predictions in our free report on analyst forecasts for the company.

The Trend Of ROCE

The trends we've noticed at Fufeng Group are quite reassuring. Over the last five years, returns on capital employed have risen substantially to 22%. Basically the business is earning more per dollar of capital invested and in addition to that, 65% more capital is being employed now too. This can indicate that there's plenty of opportunities to invest capital internally and at ever higher rates, a combination that's common among multi-baggers.

In Conclusion...

In summary, it's great to see that Fufeng Group can compound returns by consistently reinvesting capital at increasing rates of return, because these are some of the key ingredients of those highly sought after multi-baggers. And with a respectable 78% awarded to those who held the stock over the last five years, you could argue that these developments are starting to get the attention they deserve. In light of that, we think it's worth looking further into this stock because if Fufeng Group can keep these trends up, it could have a bright future ahead.

Fufeng Group does have some risks though, and we've spotted 1 warning sign for Fufeng Group that you might be interested in.

High returns are a key ingredient to strong performance, so check out our free list ofstocks earning high returns on equity with solid balance sheets.

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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.