Anik Industries (NSE:ANIKINDS) Is Experiencing Growth In Returns On Capital

What trends should we look for it we want to identify stocks that can multiply in value over the long term? One common approach is to try and find a company with returns on capital employed (ROCE) that are increasing, in conjunction with a growing amount 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 Anik Industries (NSE:ANIKINDS) and its trend of ROCE, we really liked what we saw.

What is 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. To calculate this metric for Anik Industries, this is the formula:

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

0.013 = ₹57m ÷ (₹7.8b - ₹3.3b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2021).

Thus, Anik Industries has an ROCE of 1.3%. Ultimately, that's a low return and it under-performs the Trade Distributors industry average of 7.6%.

See our latest analysis for Anik Industries

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 Anik Industries, check out these free graphs here.

What The Trend Of ROCE Can Tell Us

The fact that Anik Industries is now generating some pre-tax profits from its prior investments is very encouraging. About five years ago the company was generating losses but things have turned around because it's now earning 1.3% on its capital. And unsurprisingly, like most companies trying to break into the black, Anik Industries is utilizing 23% more capital than it was five years ago. This can indicate that there's plenty of opportunities to invest capital internally and at ever higher rates, both common traits of a multi-bagger.

On a related note, the company's ratio of current liabilities to total assets has decreased to 42%, which basically reduces it's funding from the likes of short-term creditors or suppliers. Therefore we can rest assured that the growth in ROCE is a result of the business' fundamental improvements, rather than a cooking class featuring this company's books. Nevertheless, there are some potential risks the company is bearing with current liabilities that high, so just keep that in mind.

What We Can Learn From Anik Industries' ROCE

Long story short, we're delighted to see that Anik Industries' reinvestment activities have paid off and the company is now profitable. Investors may not be impressed by the favorable underlying trends yet because over the last five years the stock has only returned 23% to shareholders. Given that, we'd look further into this stock in case it has more traits that could make it multiply in the long term.

Since virtually every company faces some risks, it's worth knowing what they are, and we've spotted 4 warning signs for Anik Industries (of which 1 doesn't sit too well with us!) that you should know about.

While Anik Industries 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.