CCID Consulting (HKG:2176) Has Some Way To Go To 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'll want to see a proven return on capital employed (ROCE) that is increasing, and secondly, an expanding base of capital employed. Put simply, these types of businesses are compounding machines, meaning they are continually reinvesting their earnings at ever-higher rates of return. In light of that, when we looked at CCID Consulting (HKG:2176) and its ROCE trend, we weren't exactly thrilled.

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. Analysts use this formula to calculate it for CCID Consulting:

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

0.16 = CN¥26m ÷ (CN¥310m - CN¥143m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2022).

Therefore, CCID Consulting has an ROCE of 16%. In absolute terms, that's a satisfactory return, but compared to the IT industry average of 7.2% it's much better.

View our latest analysis for CCID Consulting

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 want to delve into the historical earnings, revenue and cash flow of CCID Consulting, check out these free graphs here.

How Are Returns Trending?

Things have been pretty stable at CCID Consulting, with its capital employed and returns on that capital staying somewhat the same for the last five years. It's not uncommon to see this when looking at a mature and stable business that isn't re-investing its earnings because it has likely passed that phase of the business cycle. So unless we see a substantial change at CCID Consulting in terms of ROCE and additional investments being made, we wouldn't hold our breath on it being a multi-bagger.

Another point to note, we noticed the company has increased current liabilities over the last five years. This is intriguing because if current liabilities hadn't increased to 46% of total assets, this reported ROCE would probably be less than16% because total capital employed would be higher.The 16% ROCE could be even lower if current liabilities weren't 46% of total assets, because the the formula would show a larger base of total capital employed. So with current liabilities at such high levels, this effectively means the likes of suppliers or short-term creditors are funding a meaningful part of the business, which in some instances can bring some risks.

In Conclusion...

We can conclude that in regards to CCID Consulting's returns on capital employed and the trends, there isn't much change to report on. Yet to long term shareholders the stock has gifted them an incredible 212% return in the last five years, so the market appears to be rosy about its future. Ultimately, if the underlying trends persist, we wouldn't hold our breath on it being a multi-bagger going forward.

On a final note, we found 2 warning signs for CCID Consulting (1 is potentially serious) you should be aware of.

While CCID Consulting 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.