Should You Be Impressed By Hao Tian International Construction Investment Group's (HKG:1341) Returns on Capital?

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. Ultimately, this demonstrates that it's a business that is reinvesting profits at increasing rates of return. Having said that, from a first glance at Hao Tian International Construction Investment Group (HKG:1341) we aren't jumping out of our chairs at how returns are trending, but let's have a deeper 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. Analysts use this formula to calculate it for Hao Tian International Construction Investment Group:

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

0.02 = HK$27m ÷ (HK$1.6b - HK$240m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2020).

So, Hao Tian International Construction Investment Group has an ROCE of 2.0%. In absolute terms, that's a low return and it also under-performs the Trade Distributors industry average of 4.9%.

See our latest analysis for Hao Tian International Construction Investment Group

Historical performance is a great place to start when researching a stock so above you can see the gauge for Hao Tian International Construction Investment Group's ROCE against it's prior returns. If you're interested in investigating Hao Tian International Construction Investment Group's past further, check out this free graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow.

What The Trend Of ROCE Can Tell Us

In terms of Hao Tian International Construction Investment Group's historical ROCE movements, the trend isn't fantastic. To be more specific, ROCE has fallen from 7.5% over the last five years. Although, given both revenue and the amount of assets employed in the business have increased, it could suggest the company is investing in growth, and the extra capital has led to a short-term reduction in ROCE. And if the increased capital generates additional returns, the business, and thus shareholders, will benefit in the long run.

On a side note, Hao Tian International Construction Investment Group has done well to pay down its current liabilities to 15% of total assets. That could partly explain why the ROCE has dropped. Effectively this means their suppliers or short-term creditors are funding less of the business, which reduces some elements of risk. Since the business is basically funding more of its operations with it's own money, you could argue this has made the business less efficient at generating ROCE.

The Bottom Line

Even though returns on capital have fallen in the short term, we find it promising that revenue and capital employed have both increased for Hao Tian International Construction Investment Group. However, despite the promising trends, the stock has fallen 23% over the last five years, so there might be an opportunity here for astute investors. As a result, we'd recommend researching this stock further to uncover what other fundamentals of the business can show us.

On a final note, we've found 2 warning signs for Hao Tian International Construction Investment Group that we think you should be aware of.

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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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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