There are a few key trends to look for if we want to identify the next multi-bagger. 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. Although, when we looked at China SpacesatLtd (SHSE:600118), it didn't seem to tick all of these boxes.

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

For those who don't know, ROCE is a measure of a company's yearly pre-tax profit (its return), relative to the capital employed in the business. To calculate this metric for China SpacesatLtd, this is the formula:

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

0.017 = CN¥147m ÷ (CN¥15b - CN¥6.1b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2023).

Therefore, China SpacesatLtd has an ROCE of 1.7%. In absolute terms, that's a low return and it also under-performs the Aerospace & Defense industry average of 4.3%.

Check out our latest analysis for China SpacesatLtd

Above you can see how the current ROCE for China SpacesatLtd compares to its prior returns on capital, but there's only so much you can tell from the past. If you'd like to see what analysts are forecasting going forward, you should check out our free report for China SpacesatLtd.

The Trend Of ROCE

In terms of China SpacesatLtd's historical ROCE movements, the trend isn't fantastic. Over the last five years, returns on capital have decreased to 1.7% from 7.7% five years ago. Meanwhile, the business is utilizing more capital but this hasn't moved the needle much in terms of sales in the past 12 months, so this could reflect longer term investments. 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 separate but related note, it's important to know that China SpacesatLtd has a current liabilities to total assets ratio of 41%, which we'd consider pretty high. 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.

The Bottom Line On China SpacesatLtd's ROCE

In summary, China SpacesatLtd is reinvesting funds back into the business for growth but unfortunately it looks like sales haven't increased much just yet. Although the market must be expecting these trends to improve because the stock has gained 67% over the last five years. Ultimately, if the underlying trends persist, we wouldn't hold our breath on it being a multi-bagger going forward.

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

While China SpacesatLtd 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.