If we want to find a potential multi-bagger, often there are underlying trends that can provide clues. 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. However, after investigating CETC Chips Technology (SHSE:600877), we don't think it's current trends fit the mold of a multi-bagger.

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 CETC Chips Technology is:

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

0.07 = CN¥159m ÷ (CN¥2.8b - CN¥547m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2023).

So, CETC Chips Technology has an ROCE of 7.0%. In absolute terms, that's a low return, but it's much better than the Semiconductor industry average of 4.7%.

Historical performance is a great place to start when researching a stock so above you can see the gauge for CETC Chips Technology's ROCE against it's prior returns. If you want to delve into the historical earnings, revenue and cash flow of CETC Chips Technology, check out these free graphs here.

How Are Returns Trending?

In terms of CETC Chips Technology's historical ROCE movements, the trend isn't fantastic. Over the last four years, returns on capital have decreased to 7.0% from 14% four years ago. 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 related note, CETC Chips Technology has decreased its current liabilities to 19% of total assets. So we could link some of this to the decrease in ROCE. Effectively this means their suppliers or short-term creditors are funding less of the business, which reduces some elements of risk. Some would claim this reduces the business' efficiency at generating ROCE since it is now funding more of the operations with its own money.

The Bottom Line On CETC Chips Technology's ROCE

We're a bit apprehensive about CETC Chips 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 152% over the last five years, so investors appear very optimistic. In any case, the current underlying trends don't bode well for long term performance so unless they reverse, we'd start looking elsewhere.

Like most companies, CETC Chips Technology does come with some risks, and we've found 1 warning sign that you should be aware of.

While CETC Chips Technology 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.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.
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.