China Hanking Holdings (HKG:3788) Could Become A Multi-Bagger

If you're looking for a multi-bagger, there's a few things to keep an eye out for. Firstly, we'd want to identify a growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and then alongside that, an ever-increasing base of capital employed. If you see this, it typically means it's a company with a great business model and plenty of profitable reinvestment opportunities. So when we looked at the ROCE trend of China Hanking Holdings (HKG:3788) we really liked what we saw.

Understanding Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)

If you haven't worked with ROCE before, it measures the 'return' (pre-tax profit) a company generates from capital employed in its business. To calculate this metric for China Hanking Holdings, this is the formula:

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

0.36 = CN¥558m ÷ (CN¥3.6b - CN¥2.1b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2022).

Thus, China Hanking Holdings has an ROCE of 36%. In absolute terms that's a great return and it's even better than the Metals and Mining industry average of 12%.

Check out our latest analysis for China Hanking 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'd like to look at how China Hanking Holdings has performed in the past in other metrics, you can view this free graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow.

So How Is China Hanking Holdings' ROCE Trending?

We're pretty happy with how the ROCE has been trending at China Hanking Holdings. The data shows that returns on capital have increased by 305% over the trailing five years. That's a very favorable trend because this means that the company is earning more per dollar of capital that's being employed. Interestingly, the business may be becoming more efficient because it's applying 33% less capital than it was five years ago. If this trend continues, the business might be getting more efficient but it's shrinking in terms of total assets.

On a side note, we noticed that the improvement in ROCE appears to be partly fueled by an increase in current liabilities. Effectively this means that suppliers or short-term creditors are now funding 58% of the business, which is more than it was five years ago. Given it's pretty high ratio, we'd remind investors that having current liabilities at those levels can bring about some risks in certain businesses.

The Key Takeaway

In a nutshell, we're pleased to see that China Hanking Holdings has been able to generate higher returns from less capital. Since the total return from the stock has been almost flat over the last five years, there might be an opportunity here if the valuation looks good. With that in mind, we believe the promising trends warrant this stock for further investigation.

Like most companies, China Hanking Holdings does come with some risks, and we've found 1 warning sign that you should be aware of.

China Hanking Holdings is not the only stock earning high returns. If you'd like to see more, check out our free list of companies earning high returns on equity with solid fundamentals.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.

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.