What are the early trends we should look for to identify a stock that could 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. Basically this means that a company has profitable initiatives that it can continue to reinvest in, which is a trait of a compounding machine. In light of that, when we looked at Jinzhou Port (SHSE:600190) and its ROCE trend, we weren't exactly thrilled.

Understanding Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)

If you haven't worked with ROCE before, it measures the 'return' (pre-tax profit) a company generates from capital employed in its business. The formula for this calculation on Jinzhou Port is:

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

0.052 = CN¥508m ÷ (CN¥18b - CN¥7.7b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2023).

Therefore, Jinzhou Port has an ROCE of 5.2%. On its own that's a low return on capital but it's in line with the industry's average returns of 4.9%.

See our latest analysis for Jinzhou Port

Historical performance is a great place to start when researching a stock so above you can see the gauge for Jinzhou Port's ROCE against it's prior returns. If you're interested in investigating Jinzhou Port's past further, check out this free graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow.

The Trend Of ROCE

Things have been pretty stable at Jinzhou Port, with its capital employed and returns on that capital staying somewhat the same for the last five years. This tells us the company isn't reinvesting in itself, so it's plausible that it's past the growth phase. With that in mind, unless investment picks up again in the future, we wouldn't expect Jinzhou Port to be a multi-bagger going forward.

On a side note, Jinzhou Port's current liabilities are still rather high at 44% of total assets. This effectively means that suppliers (or short-term creditors) are funding a large portion of the business, so just be aware that this can introduce some elements of risk. Ideally we'd like to see this reduce as that would mean fewer obligations bearing risks.

Our Take On Jinzhou Port's ROCE

In summary, Jinzhou Port isn't compounding its earnings but is generating stable returns on the same amount of capital employed. Additionally, the stock's total return to shareholders over the last five years has been flat, which isn't too surprising. In any case, the stock doesn't have these traits of a multi-bagger discussed above, so if that's what you're looking for, we think you'd have more luck elsewhere.

If you want to know some of the risks facing Jinzhou Port we've found 3 warning signs (2 shouldn't be ignored!) that you should be aware of before investing here.

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.