Stock Analysis

Azorim-Investment Development & Construction's (TLV:AZRM) Returns Have Hit A Wall

TASE:AZRM
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Did you know there are some financial metrics that can provide clues of a potential multi-bagger? In a perfect world, we'd like to see a company investing more capital into its business and ideally the returns earned from that capital are also increasing. This shows us that it's a compounding machine, able to continually reinvest its earnings back into the business and generate higher returns. In light of that, when we looked at Azorim-Investment Development & Construction (TLV:AZRM) and its ROCE trend, we weren't exactly thrilled.

Return On Capital Employed (ROCE): What Is It?

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 Azorim-Investment Development & Construction, this is the formula:

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

0.056 = ₪235m ÷ (₪6.9b - ₪2.7b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2023).

Thus, Azorim-Investment Development & Construction has an ROCE of 5.6%. Even though it's in line with the industry average of 5.6%, it's still a low return by itself.

See our latest analysis for Azorim-Investment Development & Construction

roce
TASE:AZRM Return on Capital Employed July 6th 2023

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

SWOT Analysis for Azorim-Investment Development & Construction

Strength
  • Debt is well covered by earnings.
Weakness
  • Earnings declined over the past year.
  • Dividend is low compared to the top 25% of dividend payers in the Consumer Durables market.
  • Current share price is above our estimate of fair value.
Opportunity
  • AZRM's financial characteristics indicate limited near-term opportunities for shareholders.
  • Lack of analyst coverage makes it difficult to determine AZRM's earnings prospects.
Threat
  • Debt is not well covered by operating cash flow.
  • Paying a dividend but company has no free cash flows.

What The Trend Of ROCE Can Tell Us

The returns on capital haven't changed much for Azorim-Investment Development & Construction in recent years. The company has employed 91% more capital in the last five years, and the returns on that capital have remained stable at 5.6%. This poor ROCE doesn't inspire confidence right now, and with the increase in capital employed, it's evident that the business isn't deploying the funds into high return investments.

What We Can Learn From Azorim-Investment Development & Construction's ROCE

In conclusion, Azorim-Investment Development & Construction has been investing more capital into the business, but returns on that capital haven't increased. Investors must think there's better things to come because the stock has knocked it out of the park, delivering a 261% gain to shareholders who have held over the last five years. However, unless these underlying trends turn more positive, we wouldn't get our hopes up too high.

Azorim-Investment Development & Construction does come with some risks though, we found 4 warning signs in our investment analysis, and 1 of those shouldn't be ignored...

While Azorim-Investment Development & Construction 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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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.