Has Questor Technology (CVE:QST) Got What It Takes To Become A Multi-Bagger?

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. 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. This shows us that it's a compounding machine, able to continually reinvest its earnings back into the business and generate higher returns. Although, when we looked at Questor Technology (CVE:QST), it didn't seem to tick all of these boxes.

Return On Capital Employed (ROCE): What is it?

If you haven't worked with ROCE before, it measures the 'return' (pre-tax profit) a company generates from capital employed in its business. To calculate this metric for Questor Technology, this is the formula:

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

0.018 = CA$663k ÷ (CA$40m - CA$2.2m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2020).

So, Questor Technology has an ROCE of 1.8%. In absolute terms, that's a low return and it also under-performs the Energy Services industry average of 6.5%.

View our latest analysis for Questor Technology

In the above chart we have measured Questor Technology's prior ROCE against its prior performance, but the future is arguably more important. If you'd like to see what analysts are forecasting going forward, you should check out our free report for Questor Technology.

The Trend Of ROCE

In terms of Questor Technology's historical ROCE movements, the trend isn't fantastic. To be more specific, ROCE has fallen from 3.7% over the last five years. 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.

The Bottom Line

From the above analysis, we find it rather worrisome that returns on capital and sales for Questor Technology have fallen, meanwhile the business is employing more capital than it was five years ago. Since the stock has skyrocketed 156% over the last five years, it looks like investors have high expectations of the stock. Regardless, we don't feel too comfortable with the fundamentals so we'd be steering clear of this stock for now.

One more thing to note, we've identified 4 warning signs with Questor Technology and understanding these should be part of your investment process.

While Questor 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.

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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. 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.
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