The Return Trends At Weng Fine Art (FRA:WFA) Look Promising

To find a multi-bagger stock, what are the underlying trends we should look for in a business? Typically, we'll want to notice a trend of growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and alongside that, an expanding base of capital employed. Ultimately, this demonstrates that it's a business that is reinvesting profits at increasing rates of return. Speaking of which, we noticed some great changes in Weng Fine Art's (FRA:WFA) returns on capital, so let's have a look.

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

For those that aren't sure what ROCE is, it measures the amount of pre-tax profits a company can generate from the capital employed in its business. The formula for this calculation on Weng Fine Art is:

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

0.16 = €4.8m ÷ (€33m - €2.6m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2022).

Therefore, Weng Fine Art has an ROCE of 16%. In absolute terms, that's a satisfactory return, but compared to the Specialty Retail industry average of 8.7% it's much better.

View our latest analysis for Weng Fine Art

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 want to delve into the historical earnings, revenue and cash flow of Weng Fine Art, check out these free graphs here.

How Are Returns Trending?

Weng Fine Art is displaying some positive trends. The numbers show that in the last five years, the returns generated on capital employed have grown considerably to 16%. Basically the business is earning more per dollar of capital invested and in addition to that, 39% more capital is being employed now too. This can indicate that there's plenty of opportunities to invest capital internally and at ever higher rates, a combination that's common among multi-baggers.

The Bottom Line

All in all, it's terrific to see that Weng Fine Art is reaping the rewards from prior investments and is growing its capital base. And with the stock having performed exceptionally well over the last three years, these patterns are being accounted for by investors. 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.

One more thing: We've identified 3 warning signs with Weng Fine Art (at least 1 which is a bit concerning) , and understanding these would certainly be useful.

For those who like to invest in solid companies, check out this free list of companies with solid balance sheets and high returns on equity.

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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.