Golden Eagle Retail Group (HKG:3308) Is Looking To Continue Growing Its Returns On Capital

If you're not sure where to start when looking for the next multi-bagger, there are a few key trends you should keep an eye out for. Firstly, we'll want to see a proven return on capital employed (ROCE) that is increasing, and secondly, 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. So when we looked at Golden Eagle Retail Group (HKG:3308) and its trend of ROCE, we really liked what we saw.

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 Golden Eagle Retail Group, this is the formula:

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

0.17 = CN¥2.0b ÷ (CN¥24b - CN¥12b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2020).

Thus, Golden Eagle Retail Group has an ROCE of 17%. In absolute terms, that's a satisfactory return, but compared to the Multiline Retail industry average of 5.1% it's much better.

See our latest analysis for Golden Eagle Retail Group

Above you can see how the current ROCE for Golden Eagle Retail Group compares to its prior returns on capital, but there's only so much you can tell from the past. If you're interested, you can view the analysts predictions in our free report on analyst forecasts for the company.

The Trend Of ROCE

Golden Eagle Retail Group is displaying some positive trends. Over the last five years, returns on capital employed have risen substantially to 17%. Basically the business is earning more per dollar of capital invested and in addition to that, 36% more capital is being employed now too. This can indicate that there's plenty of opportunities to invest capital internally and at ever higher rates, a combination that's common among multi-baggers.

On a side note, Golden Eagle Retail Group's current liabilities are still rather high at 51% of total assets. This can bring about some risks because the company is basically operating with a rather large reliance on its suppliers or other sorts of short-term creditors. Ideally we'd like to see this reduce as that would mean fewer obligations bearing risks.

What We Can Learn From Golden Eagle Retail Group's ROCE

In summary, it's great to see that Golden Eagle Retail Group can compound returns by consistently reinvesting capital at increasing rates of return, because these are some of the key ingredients of those highly sought after multi-baggers. 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. So researching this company further and determining whether or not these trends will continue seems justified.

One final note, you should learn about the 3 warning signs we've spotted with Golden Eagle Retail Group (including 1 which shouldn't be ignored) .

While Golden Eagle Retail Group 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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