Hextar Industries Berhad (KLSE:HEXIND) Shareholders Will Want The ROCE Trajectory To Continue

To find a multi-bagger stock, what are the underlying trends we should look for in a business? Ideally, a business will show two trends; firstly a growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and secondly, an increasing amount of capital employed. Ultimately, this demonstrates that it's a business that is reinvesting profits at increasing rates of return. So when we looked at Hextar Industries Berhad (KLSE:HEXIND) and its trend of ROCE, we really liked what we saw.

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

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 Hextar Industries Berhad, this is the formula:

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

0.035 = RM7.9m ÷ (RM268m - RM40m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to May 2022).

Thus, Hextar Industries Berhad has an ROCE of 3.5%. In absolute terms, that's a low return and it also under-performs the Trade Distributors industry average of 7.2%.

See our latest analysis for Hextar Industries Berhad

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 Hextar Industries Berhad, check out these free graphs here.

The Trend Of ROCE

While in absolute terms it isn't a high ROCE, it's promising to see that it has been moving in the right direction. The numbers show that in the last five years, the returns generated on capital employed have grown considerably to 3.5%. The company is effectively making more money per dollar of capital used, and it's worth noting that the amount of capital has increased too, by 241%. So we're very much inspired by what we're seeing at Hextar Industries Berhad thanks to its ability to profitably reinvest capital.

The Key Takeaway

To sum it up, Hextar Industries Berhad has proven it can reinvest in the business and generate higher returns on that capital employed, which is terrific. Since the stock has only returned 40% to shareholders over the last five years, the promising fundamentals may not be recognized yet by investors. So with that in mind, we think the stock deserves further research.

On a final note, we've found 2 warning signs for Hextar Industries Berhad that we think you should be aware of.

While Hextar Industries Berhad 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.