Some Investors May Be Worried About Ritamix Global's (HKG:1936) Returns On Capital

If we want to find a potential multi-bagger, often there are underlying trends that can provide clues. Typically, we'll want to notice a trend of growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and alongside that, an expanding 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 Ritamix Global (HKG:1936), 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. To calculate this metric for Ritamix Global, this is the formula:

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

0.098 = RM14m ÷ (RM154m - RM13m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2021).

So, Ritamix Global has an ROCE of 9.8%. Even though it's in line with the industry average of 10%, it's still a low return by itself.

Check out our latest analysis for Ritamix Global

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

What Does the ROCE Trend For Ritamix Global Tell Us?

On the surface, the trend of ROCE at Ritamix Global doesn't inspire confidence. Over the last four years, returns on capital have decreased to 9.8% from 18% four years ago. 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 side note, Ritamix Global has done well to pay down its current liabilities to 8.2% of total assets. So we could link some of this to the decrease in ROCE. 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. 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

To conclude, we've found that Ritamix Global is reinvesting in the business, but returns have been falling. Since the stock has declined 26% over the last year, investors may not be too optimistic on this trend improving either. In any case, the stock doesn't have these traits of a multi-bagger discussed above, so if that's what you're looking for, we think you'd have more luck elsewhere.

One final note, you should learn about the 3 warning signs we've spotted with Ritamix Global (including 1 which is significant) .

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

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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.