Did you know there are some financial metrics that can provide clues of a potential multi-bagger? 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. If you see this, it typically means it's a company with a great business model and plenty of profitable reinvestment opportunities. Having said that, from a first glance at TRS Information Technology (SZSE:300229) we aren't jumping out of our chairs at how returns are trending, but let's have a deeper look.

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. Analysts use this formula to calculate it for TRS Information Technology:

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

0.011 = CN¥36m ÷ (CN¥3.8b - CN¥371m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2023).

Thus, TRS Information Technology has an ROCE of 1.1%. In absolute terms, that's a low return and it also under-performs the Software industry average of 2.6%.

Check out our latest analysis for TRS Information Technology

In the above chart we have measured TRS Information Technology's prior ROCE against its prior performance, but the future is arguably more important. If you'd like to see what analysts are forecasting going forward, you should check out our free report for TRS Information Technology.

The Trend Of ROCE

We weren't thrilled with the trend because TRS Information Technology's ROCE has reduced by 89% over the last five years, while the business employed 78% more capital. Usually this isn't ideal, but given TRS Information Technology conducted a capital raising before their most recent earnings announcement, that would've likely contributed, at least partially, to the increased capital employed figure. TRS Information Technology probably hasn't received a full year of earnings yet from the new funds it raised, so these figures should be taken with a grain of salt.

On a side note, TRS Information Technology has done well to pay down its current liabilities to 9.9% 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. Since the business is basically funding more of its operations with it's own money, you could argue this has made the business less efficient at generating ROCE.

The Bottom Line

We're a bit apprehensive about TRS Information Technology because despite more capital being deployed in the business, returns on that capital and sales have both fallen. Yet despite these poor fundamentals, the stock has gained a huge 172% over the last five years, so investors appear very optimistic. Regardless, we don't feel too comfortable with the fundamentals so we'd be steering clear of this stock for now.

On a separate note, we've found 3 warning signs for TRS Information Technology you'll probably want to know about.

For those who like to invest in solid companies, check out this free list of companies with solid balance sheets and high 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.