If we want to find a potential multi-bagger, often there are underlying trends that can provide clues. Amongst other things, we'll want to see two things; firstly, a growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and secondly, an expansion in the company's amount 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. Although, when we looked at Jiangnan Yifan MotorLtd (SZSE:301023), it didn't seem to tick all of these boxes.

Return On Capital Employed (ROCE): What Is It?

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 Jiangnan Yifan MotorLtd is:

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

0.056 = CN¥45m ÷ (CN¥871m - CN¥69m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2023).

Therefore, Jiangnan Yifan MotorLtd has an ROCE of 5.6%. Even though it's in line with the industry average of 6.3%, it's still a low return by itself.

View our latest analysis for Jiangnan Yifan MotorLtd

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 Jiangnan Yifan MotorLtd has performed in the past in other metrics, you can view this free graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow.

How Are Returns Trending?

When we looked at the ROCE trend at Jiangnan Yifan MotorLtd, we didn't gain much confidence. Around five years ago the returns on capital were 39%, but since then they've fallen to 5.6%. And considering revenue has dropped while employing more capital, we'd be cautious. If this were to continue, you might be looking at a company that is trying to reinvest for growth but is actually losing market share since sales haven't increased.

On a side note, Jiangnan Yifan MotorLtd has done well to pay down its current liabilities to 7.9% 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. Some would claim this reduces the business' efficiency at generating ROCE since it is now funding more of the operations with its own money.

Our Take On Jiangnan Yifan MotorLtd's ROCE

We're a bit apprehensive about Jiangnan Yifan MotorLtd because despite more capital being deployed in the business, returns on that capital and sales have both fallen. Long term shareholders who've owned the stock over the last year have experienced a 30% depreciation in their investment, so it appears the market might not like these trends either. Unless there is a shift to a more positive trajectory in these metrics, we would look elsewhere.

If you want to continue researching Jiangnan Yifan MotorLtd, you might be interested to know about the 2 warning signs that our analysis has discovered.

While Jiangnan Yifan MotorLtd 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.