The Returns On Capital At Hanexpress.Co (KRX:014130) Don't Inspire Confidence

If you're not sure where to start when looking for the next multi-bagger, there are a few key trends you should keep an eye out for. 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. Basically this means that a company has profitable initiatives that it can continue to reinvest in, which is a trait of a compounding machine. However, after briefly looking over the numbers, we don't think Hanexpress.Co (KRX:014130) has the makings of a multi-bagger going forward, but let's have a look at why that may be.

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. Analysts use this formula to calculate it for Hanexpress.Co:

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

0.098 = ₩11b ÷ (₩302b - ₩193b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2020).

Thus, Hanexpress.Co has an ROCE of 9.8%. In absolute terms, that's a low return, but it's much better than the Transportation industry average of 4.2%.

See our latest analysis for Hanexpress.Co

Historical performance is a great place to start when researching a stock so above you can see the gauge for Hanexpress.Co's ROCE against it's prior returns. If you're interested in investigating Hanexpress.Co's past further, check out this free graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow.

What Can We Tell From Hanexpress.Co's ROCE Trend?

In terms of Hanexpress.Co's historical ROCE movements, the trend isn't fantastic. To be more specific, ROCE has fallen from 16% over the last five years. However it looks like Hanexpress.Co might be reinvesting for long term growth because while capital employed has increased, the company's sales haven't changed much in the last 12 months. It may take some time before the company starts to see any change in earnings from these investments.

While on the subject, we noticed that the ratio of current liabilities to total assets has risen to 64%, which has impacted the ROCE. Without this increase, it's likely that ROCE would be even lower than 9.8%. What this means is that in reality, a rather large portion of the business is being funded by the likes of the company's suppliers or short-term creditors, which can bring some risks of its own.

Our Take On Hanexpress.Co's ROCE

In summary, Hanexpress.Co is reinvesting funds back into the business for growth but unfortunately it looks like sales haven't increased much just yet. Since the stock has declined 40% over the last five years, investors may not be too optimistic on this trend improving either. In any case, the stock doesn't have these traits of a multi-bagger discussed above, so if that's what you're looking for, we think you'd have more luck elsewhere.

If you'd like to know more about Hanexpress.Co, we've spotted 4 warning signs, and 2 of them shouldn't be ignored.

For those who like to invest in solid companies, check out this free list of companies with solid balance sheets and high returns on equity.

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