Brunello Cucinelli (BIT:BC) May Have Issues Allocating Its Capital

If you're looking for a multi-bagger, there's a few things to keep an eye out for. 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. 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 Brunello Cucinelli (BIT:BC) and its ROCE trend, we weren't exactly thrilled.

Understanding Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)

For those who don't know, ROCE is a measure of a company's yearly pre-tax profit (its return), relative to the capital employed in the business. To calculate this metric for Brunello Cucinelli, this is the formula:

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

0.15 = €143m ÷ (€1.3b - €389m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2022).

Therefore, Brunello Cucinelli has an ROCE of 15%. In absolute terms, that's a satisfactory return, but compared to the Luxury industry average of 9.7% it's much better.

See our latest analysis for Brunello Cucinelli

Above you can see how the current ROCE for Brunello Cucinelli compares to its prior returns on capital, but there's only so much you can tell from the past. If you'd like, you can check out the forecasts from the analysts covering Brunello Cucinelli here for free.

What The Trend Of ROCE Can Tell Us

In terms of Brunello Cucinelli's historical ROCE movements, the trend isn't fantastic. To be more specific, ROCE has fallen from 20% over the last five years. Although, given both revenue and the amount of assets employed in the business have increased, it could suggest the company is investing in growth, and the extra capital has led to a short-term reduction in ROCE. And if the increased capital generates additional returns, the business, and thus shareholders, will benefit in the long run.

The Bottom Line

In summary, despite lower returns in the short term, we're encouraged to see that Brunello Cucinelli is reinvesting for growth and has higher sales as a result. And the stock has done incredibly well with a 230% return over the last five years, so long term investors are no doubt ecstatic with that result. So should these growth trends continue, we'd be optimistic on the stock going forward.

If you're still interested in Brunello Cucinelli it's worth checking out our FREE intrinsic value approximation to see if it's trading at an attractive price in other respects.

If you want to search for solid companies with great earnings, check out this free list of companies with good balance sheets and impressive returns on equity.

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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.