Slowing Rates Of Return At Wielton (WSE:WLT) Leave Little Room For Excitement

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. Put simply, these types of businesses are compounding machines, meaning they are continually reinvesting their earnings at ever-higher rates of return. That's why when we briefly looked at Wielton's (WSE:WLT) ROCE trend, we were pretty happy with 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. Analysts use this formula to calculate it for Wielton:

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

0.16 = zł142m ÷ (zł2.2b - zł1.3b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2023).

Therefore, Wielton has an ROCE of 16%. On its own, that's a standard return, however it's much better than the 11% generated by the Machinery industry.

View our latest analysis for Wielton

In the above chart we have measured Wielton's prior ROCE against its prior performance, but the future is arguably more important. If you'd like to see what analysts are forecasting going forward, you should check out our free report for Wielton.

What The Trend Of ROCE Can Tell Us

While the returns on capital are good, they haven't moved much. Over the past five years, ROCE has remained relatively flat at around 16% and the business has deployed 71% more capital into its operations. Since 16% is a moderate ROCE though, it's good to see a business can continue to reinvest at these decent rates of return. Over long periods of time, returns like these might not be too exciting, but with consistency they can pay off in terms of share price returns.

On a side note, Wielton's current liabilities are still rather high at 58% of total assets. This effectively means that suppliers (or short-term creditors) are funding a large portion of the business, so just be aware that this can introduce some elements of risk. While it's not necessarily a bad thing, it can be beneficial if this ratio is lower.

In Conclusion...

In the end, Wielton has proven its ability to adequately reinvest capital at good rates of return. However, despite the favorable fundamentals, the stock has fallen 17% over the last five years, so there might be an opportunity here for astute investors. That's why we think it'd be worthwhile to look further into this stock given the fundamentals are appealing.

Like most companies, Wielton does come with some risks, and we've found 3 warning signs that you should be aware of.

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.