Can Aluflexpack (VTX:AFP) Continue To Grow Its Returns On Capital?

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. If you see this, it typically means it's a company with a great business model and plenty of profitable reinvestment opportunities. Speaking of which, we noticed some great changes in Aluflexpack's (VTX:AFP) returns on capital, so let's have a look.

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 Aluflexpack, this is the formula:

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

0.061 = €13m ÷ (€276m - €63m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2020).

Therefore, Aluflexpack has an ROCE of 6.1%. Ultimately, that's a low return and it under-performs the Packaging industry average of 12%.

See our latest analysis for Aluflexpack

In the above chart we have measured Aluflexpack'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 Aluflexpack.

What Does the ROCE Trend For Aluflexpack Tell Us?

Aluflexpack has broken into the black (profitability) and we're sure it's a sight for sore eyes. The company now earns 6.1% on its capital, because one year ago it was incurring losses. Interestingly, the capital employed by the business has remained relatively flat, so these higher returns are either from prior investments paying off or increased efficiencies. So while we're happy that the business is more efficient, just keep in mind that could mean that going forward the business is lacking areas to invest internally for growth. So if you're looking for high growth, you'll want to see a business's capital employed also increasing.

One more thing to note, Aluflexpack has decreased current liabilities to 23% of total assets over this period, which effectively reduces the amount of funding from suppliers or short-term creditors. Therefore we can rest assured that the growth in ROCE is a result of the business' fundamental improvements, rather than a cooking class featuring this company's books.

In Conclusion...

As discussed above, Aluflexpack appears to be getting more proficient at generating returns since capital employed has remained flat but earnings (before interest and tax) are up. And a remarkable 181% total return over the last year tells us that investors are expecting more good things to come in the future. So given the stock has proven it has promising trends, it's worth researching the company further to see if these trends are likely to persist.

On a separate note, we've found 1 warning sign for Aluflexpack you'll probably want to know about.

While Aluflexpack 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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