If you're not sure where to start when looking for the next multi-bagger, there are a few key trends you should keep an eye out for. 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. Basically this means that a company has profitable initiatives that it can continue to reinvest in, which is a trait of a compounding machine. Although, when we looked at Billion Industrial Holdings (HKG:2299), it didn't seem to tick all of these boxes.

What Is 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. Analysts use this formula to calculate it for Billion Industrial Holdings:

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

0.014 = CN¥161m ÷ (CN¥26b - CN¥15b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2023).

Thus, Billion Industrial Holdings has an ROCE of 1.4%. In absolute terms, that's a low return and it also under-performs the Luxury industry average of 10%.

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

What The Trend Of ROCE Can Tell Us

When we looked at the ROCE trend at Billion Industrial Holdings, we didn't gain much confidence. Around five years ago the returns on capital were 14%, but since then they've fallen to 1.4%. However it looks like Billion Industrial Holdings might be reinvesting for long term growth because while capital employed has increased, the company's sales haven't changed much in the last 12 months. 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, Billion Industrial Holdings' current liabilities are still rather high at 58% 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. While it's not necessarily a bad thing, it can be beneficial if this ratio is lower.

Our Take On Billion Industrial Holdings' ROCE

In summary, Billion Industrial Holdings is reinvesting funds back into the business for growth but unfortunately it looks like sales haven't increased much just yet. And in the last five years, the stock has given away 66% so the market doesn't look too hopeful on these trends strengthening any time soon. 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.

On a final note, we found 2 warning signs for Billion Industrial Holdings (1 makes us a bit uncomfortable) you should be aware of.

While Billion Industrial Holdings isn't earning the highest return, check out this free list of companies that are earning high returns on equity with solid balance sheets.

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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.