Capital Allocation Trends At Winson Holdings Hong Kong (HKG:6812) Aren't Ideal

What are the early trends we should look for to identify a stock that could multiply in value over the long term? Ideally, a business will show two trends; firstly a growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and secondly, an increasing 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 Winson Holdings Hong Kong (HKG:6812), it didn't seem to tick all of these boxes.

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. To calculate this metric for Winson Holdings Hong Kong, this is the formula:

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

0.095 = HK$19m ÷ (HK$252m - HK$54m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2021).

So, Winson Holdings Hong Kong has an ROCE of 9.5%. On its own that's a low return on capital but it's in line with the industry's average returns of 9.0%.

Check out our latest analysis for Winson Holdings Hong Kong

Historical performance is a great place to start when researching a stock so above you can see the gauge for Winson Holdings Hong Kong's ROCE against it's prior returns. If you want to delve into the historical earnings, revenue and cash flow of Winson Holdings Hong Kong, check out these free graphs here.

What Can We Tell From Winson Holdings Hong Kong's ROCE Trend?

In terms of Winson Holdings Hong Kong's historical ROCE movements, the trend isn't fantastic. To be more specific, ROCE has fallen from 39% over the last five years. Meanwhile, the business is utilizing more capital but this hasn't moved the needle much in terms of sales in the past 12 months, so this could reflect longer term investments. It's worth keeping an eye on the company's earnings from here on to see if these investments do end up contributing to the bottom line.

On a related note, Winson Holdings Hong Kong has decreased its current liabilities to 21% of total assets. So we could link some of this to the decrease in ROCE. 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 On Winson Holdings Hong Kong's ROCE

In summary, Winson Holdings Hong Kong is reinvesting funds back into the business for growth but unfortunately it looks like sales haven't increased much just yet. Since the stock has gained an impressive 71% over the last three years, investors must think there's better things to come. However, unless these underlying trends turn more positive, we wouldn't get our hopes up too high.

If you want to continue researching Winson Holdings Hong Kong, you might be interested to know about the 3 warning signs that our analysis has discovered.

While Winson Holdings Hong Kong isn't earning the highest return, check out this free list of companies that are earning high returns on equity with solid balance sheets.

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.

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