If you're looking for a multi-bagger, there's a few things to keep an eye out for. Amongst other things, we'll want to see two things; firstly, a growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and secondly, an expansion in the company's 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. However, after briefly looking over the numbers, we don't think Espressif Systems (Shanghai) (SHSE:688018) has the makings of a multi-bagger going forward, but let's have a look at why that may be.

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 Espressif Systems (Shanghai), this is the formula:

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

0.016 = CN¥32m ÷ (CN¥2.2b - CN¥203m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2023).

Thus, Espressif Systems (Shanghai) has an ROCE of 1.6%. Ultimately, that's a low return and it under-performs the Semiconductor industry average of 4.2%.

Check out our latest analysis for Espressif Systems (Shanghai)

Above you can see how the current ROCE for Espressif Systems (Shanghai) compares to its prior returns on capital, but there's only so much you can tell from the past. If you're interested, you can view the analysts predictions in our free report on analyst forecasts for the company.

The Trend Of ROCE

When we looked at the ROCE trend at Espressif Systems (Shanghai), we didn't gain much confidence. Around five years ago the returns on capital were 28%, but since then they've fallen to 1.6%. Meanwhile, the business is utilizing more capital but this hasn't moved the needle much in terms of sales in the past 12 months, so this could reflect longer term investments. 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.

The Bottom Line

To conclude, we've found that Espressif Systems (Shanghai) is reinvesting in the business, but returns have been falling. And investors appear hesitant that the trends will pick up because the stock has fallen 33% in the last three years. All in all, the inherent trends aren't typical of multi-baggers, so if that's what you're after, we think you might have more luck elsewhere.

Espressif Systems (Shanghai) could be trading at an attractive price in other respects, so you might find our free intrinsic value estimation on our platform quite valuable.

While Espressif Systems (Shanghai) isn't earning the highest return, check out this free list of companies that are 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.