CIMC Vehicles (Group) (HKG:1839) May Have Issues Allocating Its Capital

What are the early trends we should look for to identify a stock that could multiply in value over the long term? Firstly, we'd want to identify a growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and then alongside that, an ever-increasing base of capital employed. 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 CIMC Vehicles (Group) (HKG:1839), it didn't seem to tick all of these boxes.

What is Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)?

Just to clarify if you're unsure, ROCE is a metric for evaluating how much pre-tax income (in percentage terms) a company earns on the capital invested in its business. Analysts use this formula to calculate it for CIMC Vehicles (Group):

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

0.11 = CN¥1.4b ÷ (CN¥23b - CN¥10.0b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2021).

Thus, CIMC Vehicles (Group) has an ROCE of 11%. In absolute terms, that's a pretty normal return, and it's somewhat close to the Machinery industry average of 10%.

See our latest analysis for CIMC Vehicles (Group)

Above you can see how the current ROCE for CIMC Vehicles (Group) compares to its prior returns on capital, but there's only so much you can tell from the past. If you're interested, you can view the analysts predictions in our free report on analyst forecasts for the company.

What Does the ROCE Trend For CIMC Vehicles (Group) Tell Us?

When we looked at the ROCE trend at CIMC Vehicles (Group), we didn't gain much confidence. To be more specific, ROCE has fallen from 16% over the last four years. However, given capital employed and revenue have both increased it appears that the business is currently pursuing growth, at the consequence of short term returns. If these investments prove successful, this can bode very well for long term stock performance.

On a side note, CIMC Vehicles (Group)'s 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.

The Bottom Line On CIMC Vehicles (Group)'s ROCE

In summary, despite lower returns in the short term, we're encouraged to see that CIMC Vehicles (Group) is reinvesting for growth and has higher sales as a result. These trends don't appear to have influenced returns though, because the total return from the stock has been mostly flat over the last year. So we think it'd be worthwhile to look further into this stock given the trends look encouraging.

One more thing, we've spotted 2 warning signs facing CIMC Vehicles (Group) that you might find interesting.

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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.