Hiolle Industries (EPA:ALHIO) Has Some Way To Go To Become A Multi-Bagger

What are the early trends we should look for to identify a stock that could multiply in value over the long term? 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 Hiolle Industries (EPA:ALHIO), 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. The formula for this calculation on Hiolle Industries is:

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

0.083 = €4.3m ÷ (€91m - €39m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2021).

Thus, Hiolle Industries has an ROCE of 8.3%. On its own that's a low return, but compared to the average of 4.4% generated by the Machinery industry, it's much better.

See our latest analysis for Hiolle Industries

Historical performance is a great place to start when researching a stock so above you can see the gauge for Hiolle Industries' ROCE against it's prior returns. If you'd like to look at how Hiolle Industries has performed in the past in other metrics, you can view this free graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow.

The Trend Of ROCE

The returns on capital haven't changed much for Hiolle Industries in recent years. Over the past five years, ROCE has remained relatively flat at around 8.3% and the business has deployed 47% more capital into its operations. Given the company has increased the amount of capital employed, it appears the investments that have been made simply don't provide a high return on capital.

On a side note, Hiolle Industries' current liabilities are still rather high at 43% of total assets. 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.

What We Can Learn From Hiolle Industries' ROCE

Long story short, while Hiolle Industries has been reinvesting its capital, the returns that it's generating haven't increased. And with the stock having returned a mere 5.7% in the last five years to shareholders, you could argue that they're aware of these lackluster trends. So if you're looking for a multi-bagger, the underlying trends indicate you may have better chances elsewhere.

One more thing: We've identified 3 warning signs with Hiolle Industries (at least 1 which can't be ignored) , 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.