Atal (WSE:1AT) Might Be Having Difficulty Using Its Capital Effectively

If you're looking for a multi-bagger, there's a few things to 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. If you see this, it typically means it's a company with a great business model and plenty of profitable reinvestment opportunities. Although, when we looked at Atal (WSE:1AT), it didn't seem to tick all of these boxes.

What Is Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)?

If you haven't worked with ROCE before, it measures the 'return' (pre-tax profit) a company generates from capital employed in its business. The formula for this calculation on Atal is:

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

0.16 = zł370m ÷ (zł3.3b - zł1.0b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2023).

Thus, Atal has an ROCE of 16%. In absolute terms, that's a satisfactory return, but compared to the Consumer Durables industry average of 10% it's much better.

Check out our latest analysis for Atal

In the above chart we have measured Atal'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 Atal.

The Trend Of ROCE

When we looked at the ROCE trend at Atal, we didn't gain much confidence. Around five years ago the returns on capital were 23%, but since then they've fallen to 16%. And considering revenue has dropped while employing more capital, we'd be cautious. If this were to continue, you might be looking at a company that is trying to reinvest for growth but is actually losing market share since sales haven't increased.

In Conclusion...

From the above analysis, we find it rather worrisome that returns on capital and sales for Atal have fallen, meanwhile the business is employing more capital than it was five years ago. Yet despite these poor fundamentals, the stock has gained a huge 240% over the last five years, so investors appear very optimistic. Regardless, we don't feel too comfortable with the fundamentals so we'd be steering clear of this stock for now.

Since virtually every company faces some risks, it's worth knowing what they are, and we've spotted 3 warning signs for Atal (of which 1 doesn't sit too well with us!) that you should know about.

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.