Ignoring the stock price of a company, what are the underlying trends that tell us a business is past the growth phase? Typically, we'll see the trend of both return on capital employed (ROCE) declining and this usually coincides with a decreasing amount of capital employed. This combination can tell you that not only is the company investing less, it's earning less on what it does invest. So after glancing at the trends within Rastar Group (SZSE:300043), we weren't too hopeful.

What Is Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)?

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. The formula for this calculation on Rastar Group is:

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

0.013 = CN¥36m ÷ (CN¥4.6b - CN¥1.9b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2023).

Therefore, Rastar Group has an ROCE of 1.3%. In absolute terms, that's a low return and it also under-performs the Leisure industry average of 6.2%.

While the past is not representative of the future, it can be helpful to know how a company has performed historically, which is why we have this chart above. If you'd like to look at how Rastar Group has performed in the past in other metrics, you can view this free graph of Rastar Group's past earnings, revenue and cash flow.

The Trend Of ROCE

We aren't too thrilled by the trend because ROCE has declined 83% over the last five years and despite the capital raising conducted before the latest reports, the business has -29% less capital employed.

On a side note, Rastar Group's current liabilities are still rather high at 41% of total assets. This can bring about some risks because the company is basically operating with a rather large reliance on its suppliers or other sorts of short-term creditors. Ideally we'd like to see this reduce as that would mean fewer obligations bearing risks.

The Bottom Line

In short, lower returns and decreasing amounts capital employed in the business doesn't fill us with confidence. Long term shareholders who've owned the stock over the last five years have experienced a 27% depreciation in their investment, so it appears the market might not like these trends either. With underlying trends that aren't great in these areas, we'd consider looking elsewhere.

On a separate note, we've found 2 warning signs for Rastar Group you'll probably want to know about.

While Rastar Group 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.