We're Watching These Trends At Technovator International (HKG:1206)

Did you know there are some financial metrics that can provide clues of a potential multi-bagger? Amongst other things, we'll want to see two things; firstly, a growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and secondly, an expansion in the company's amount 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. In light of that, when we looked at Technovator International (HKG:1206) and its ROCE trend, we weren't exactly thrilled.

Understanding Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)

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. The formula for this calculation on Technovator International is:

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

0.03 = CN¥84m ÷ (CN¥4.6b - CN¥1.8b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2020).

So, Technovator International has an ROCE of 3.0%. In absolute terms, that's a low return and it also under-performs the Electronic industry average of 7.7%.

View our latest analysis for Technovator International

Historical performance is a great place to start when researching a stock so above you can see the gauge for Technovator International's ROCE against it's prior returns. If you'd like to look at how Technovator International has performed in the past in other metrics, you can view this free graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow.

What The Trend Of ROCE Can Tell Us

In terms of Technovator International's historical ROCE movements, the trend isn't fantastic. Around five years ago the returns on capital were 10%, but since then they've fallen to 3.0%. Given the business is employing more capital while revenue has slipped, this is a bit concerning. If this were to continue, you might be looking at a company that is trying to reinvest for growth but is actually losing market share since sales haven't increased.

The Bottom Line On Technovator International's ROCE

We're a bit apprehensive about Technovator International because despite more capital being deployed in the business, returns on that capital and sales have both fallen. We expect this has contributed to the stock plummeting 83% during the last five years. Unless there is a shift to a more positive trajectory in these metrics, we would look elsewhere.

One final note, you should learn about the 3 warning signs we've spotted with Technovator International (including 1 which is shouldn't be ignored) .

While Technovator International 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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