Did you know there are some financial metrics that can provide clues of a potential multi-bagger? Firstly, we'll want to see a proven return on capital employed (ROCE) that is increasing, and secondly, an expanding base of capital employed. If you see this, it typically means it's a company with a great business model and plenty of profitable reinvestment opportunities. In light of that, when we looked at Scholar Education Group (HKG:1769) and its ROCE trend, we weren't exactly thrilled.

Understanding 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 Scholar Education Group:

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

0.12 = CN¥58m ÷ (CN¥735m - CN¥229m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2023).

Therefore, Scholar Education Group has an ROCE of 12%. In absolute terms, that's a pretty normal return, and it's somewhat close to the Consumer Services industry average of 10%.

View our latest analysis for Scholar Education Group

Historical performance is a great place to start when researching a stock so above you can see the gauge for Scholar Education Group's ROCE against it's prior returns. If you'd like to look at how Scholar Education Group has performed in the past in other metrics, you can view this free graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow.

What Does the ROCE Trend For Scholar Education Group Tell Us?

On the surface, the trend of ROCE at Scholar Education Group doesn't inspire confidence. Around five years ago the returns on capital were 54%, but since then they've fallen to 12%. On the other hand, the company has been employing more capital without a corresponding improvement in sales in the last year, which could suggest these investments are longer term plays. 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.

On a side note, Scholar Education Group has done well to pay down its current liabilities to 31% 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.

Our Take On Scholar Education Group's ROCE

To conclude, we've found that Scholar Education Group is reinvesting in the business, but returns have been falling. And investors may be expecting the fundamentals to get a lot worse because the stock has crashed 87% over the last three years. On the whole, we aren't too inspired by the underlying trends and we think there may be better chances of finding a multi-bagger elsewhere.

Scholar Education Group does have some risks, we noticed 3 warning signs (and 2 which shouldn't be ignored) we think you should know about.

While Scholar Education Group may not currently earn the highest returns, we've compiled a list of companies that currently earn more than 25% return on equity. Check out this free list here.

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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.