There are a few key trends to look for if we want to identify the next multi-bagger. Firstly, we'd want to identify a growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and then alongside that, an ever-increasing base of capital employed. This shows us that it's a compounding machine, able to continually reinvest its earnings back into the business and generate higher returns. So on that note, China Anchu Energy Storage Group (HKG:2399) looks quite promising in regards to its trends of return on capital.

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. The formula for this calculation on China Anchu Energy Storage Group is:

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

0.047 = CN¥34m ÷ (CN¥1.6b - CN¥907m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2024).

Thus, China Anchu Energy Storage Group has an ROCE of 4.7%. In absolute terms, that's a low return and it also under-performs the Luxury industry average of 12%.

View our latest analysis for China Anchu Energy Storage Group

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 China Anchu Energy Storage Group has performed in the past in other metrics, you can view this free graph of China Anchu Energy Storage Group's past earnings, revenue and cash flow.

The Trend Of ROCE

We're delighted to see that China Anchu Energy Storage Group is reaping rewards from its investments and has now broken into profitability. While the business is profitable now, it used to be incurring losses on invested capital five years ago. At first glance, it seems the business is getting more proficient at generating returns, because over the same period, the amount of capital employed has reduced by 51%. The reduction could indicate that the company is selling some assets, and considering returns are up, they appear to be selling the right ones.

For the record though, there was a noticeable increase in the company's current liabilities over the period, so we would attribute some of the ROCE growth to that. Effectively this means that suppliers or short-term creditors are now funding 56% of the business, which is more than it was five years ago. And with current liabilities at those levels, that's pretty high.

The Bottom Line

In a nutshell, we're pleased to see that China Anchu Energy Storage Group has been able to generate higher returns from less capital. And since the stock has dived 91% over the last five years, there may be other factors affecting the company's prospects. Regardless, we think the underlying fundamentals warrant this stock for further investigation.

If you'd like to know more about China Anchu Energy Storage Group, we've spotted 3 warning signs, and 1 of them doesn't sit too well with us.

If you want to search for solid companies with great earnings, check out this free list of companies with good balance sheets and impressive returns on equity.

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