Here's What's Concerning About Vistar Holdings' (HKG:8535) Returns On Capital

To find a multi-bagger stock, what are the underlying trends we should look for in a business? One common approach is to try and find a company with returns on capital employed (ROCE) that are increasing, in conjunction with a growing amount 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 Vistar Holdings (HKG:8535), 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 Vistar Holdings:

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

0.19 = HK$25m ÷ (HK$223m - HK$90m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2020).

Thus, Vistar Holdings has an ROCE of 19%. In absolute terms, that's a satisfactory return, but compared to the Construction industry average of 9.1% it's much better.

Check out our latest analysis for Vistar Holdings

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 Vistar Holdings, check out these free graphs here.

What Can We Tell From Vistar Holdings' ROCE Trend?

In terms of Vistar Holdings' historical ROCE movements, the trend isn't fantastic. Over the last four years, returns on capital have decreased to 19% from 47% four years ago. On the other hand, the company has been employing more capital without a corresponding improvement in sales in the last year, which could suggest these investments are longer term plays. It may take some time before the company starts to see any change in earnings from these investments.

On a related note, Vistar Holdings has decreased its current liabilities to 40% of total assets. That could partly explain why the ROCE has dropped. What's more, this can reduce some aspects of risk to the business because now the company's suppliers or short-term creditors are funding less of its operations. Some would claim this reduces the business' efficiency at generating ROCE since it is now funding more of the operations with its own money. Either way, they're still at a pretty high level, so we'd like to see them fall further if possible.

The Key Takeaway

To conclude, we've found that Vistar Holdings is reinvesting in the business, but returns have been falling. Yet to long term shareholders the stock has gifted them an incredible 223% return in the last three years, so the market appears to be rosy about its future. Ultimately, if the underlying trends persist, we wouldn't hold our breath on it being a multi-bagger going forward.

Vistar Holdings does have some risks, we noticed 3 warning signs (and 1 which makes us a bit uncomfortable) we think you should know about.

While Vistar Holdings 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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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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