Hygeia Healthcare Holdings' (HKG:6078) Returns Have Hit A Wall

What are the early trends we should look for to identify a stock that could multiply in value over the long term? Typically, we'll want to notice a trend of growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and alongside that, an expanding base of capital employed. This shows us that it's a compounding machine, able to continually reinvest its earnings back into the business and generate higher returns. That's why when we briefly looked at Hygeia Healthcare Holdings' (HKG:6078) ROCE trend, we were pretty happy with what we saw.

Understanding 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. To calculate this metric for Hygeia Healthcare Holdings, this is the formula:

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

0.11 = CN¥976m ÷ (CN¥11b - CN¥1.9b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2024).

So, Hygeia Healthcare Holdings has an ROCE of 11%. On its own, that's a standard return, however it's much better than the 8.6% generated by the Healthcare industry.

Check out our latest analysis for Hygeia Healthcare Holdings

Above you can see how the current ROCE for Hygeia Healthcare Holdings compares to its prior returns on capital, but there's only so much you can tell from the past. If you'd like, you can check out the forecasts from the analysts covering Hygeia Healthcare Holdings for free.

The Trend Of ROCE

The trend of ROCE doesn't stand out much, but returns on a whole are decent. Over the past five years, ROCE has remained relatively flat at around 11% and the business has deployed 780% more capital into its operations. Since 11% is a moderate ROCE though, it's good to see a business can continue to reinvest at these decent rates of return. Over long periods of time, returns like these might not be too exciting, but with consistency they can pay off in terms of share price returns.

One more thing to note, even though ROCE has remained relatively flat over the last five years, the reduction in current liabilities to 17% of total assets, is good to see from a business owner's perspective. This can eliminate some of the risks inherent in the operations because the business has less outstanding obligations to their suppliers and or short-term creditors than they did previously.

In Conclusion...

To sum it up, Hygeia Healthcare Holdings has simply been reinvesting capital steadily, at those decent rates of return. What's surprising though is that the stock has collapsed 72% over the last three years, so there might be other areas of the business hurting its prospects. So in light of that'd we think it's worthwhile looking further into this stock to see if there's any areas for concern.

Hygeia Healthcare Holdings could be trading at an attractive price in other respects, so you might find our free intrinsic value estimation for 6078 on our platform quite valuable.

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. 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.