What trends should we look for it we want to identify stocks that can multiply in value over the long term? In a perfect world, we'd like to see a company investing more capital into its business and ideally the returns earned from that capital are also increasing. This shows us that it's a compounding machine, able to continually reinvest its earnings back into the business and generate higher returns. In light of that, when we looked at AAC Technologies Holdings (HKG:2018) 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 AAC Technologies Holdings:

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

0.01 = CN¥321m ÷ (CN¥39b - CN¥8.5b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2023).

Thus, AAC Technologies Holdings has an ROCE of 1.0%. Ultimately, that's a low return and it under-performs the Electronic industry average of 7.2%.

View our latest analysis for AAC Technologies Holdings

In the above chart we have measured AAC Technologies Holdings' 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.

What Does the ROCE Trend For AAC Technologies Holdings Tell Us?

When we looked at the ROCE trend at AAC Technologies Holdings, we didn't gain much confidence. Over the last five years, returns on capital have decreased to 1.0% from 28% five years ago. However, given capital employed and revenue have both increased it appears that the business is currently pursuing growth, at the consequence of short term returns. If these investments prove successful, this can bode very well for long term stock performance.

The Bottom Line

In summary, despite lower returns in the short term, we're encouraged to see that AAC Technologies Holdings is reinvesting for growth and has higher sales as a result. These growth trends haven't led to growth returns though, since the stock has fallen 57% over the last five years. So we think it'd be worthwhile to look further into this stock given the trends look encouraging.

One more thing, we've spotted 1 warning sign facing AAC Technologies Holdings that you might find interesting.

If you want to search for solid companies with great earnings, check out this free list of companies with good balance sheets and impressive returns on equity.

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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.