BioMaxima (WSE:BMX) Knows How To Allocate Capital Effectively

What are the early trends we should look for to identify a stock that could multiply in value over the long term? 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. Basically this means that a company has profitable initiatives that it can continue to reinvest in, which is a trait of a compounding machine. So when we looked at the ROCE trend of BioMaxima (WSE:BMX) we really liked what we saw.

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. The formula for this calculation on BioMaxima is:

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

0.24 = zł9.6m ÷ (zł53m - zł13m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2020).

Therefore, BioMaxima has an ROCE of 24%. In absolute terms that's a great return and it's even better than the Medical Equipment industry average of 15%.

See our latest analysis for BioMaxima

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

What Can We Tell From BioMaxima's ROCE Trend?

BioMaxima is displaying some positive trends. The numbers show that in the last five years, the returns generated on capital employed have grown considerably to 24%. The amount of capital employed has increased too, by 111%. This can indicate that there's plenty of opportunities to invest capital internally and at ever higher rates, a combination that's common among multi-baggers.

For the record though, there was a noticeable increase in the company's current liabilities over the period, so we would attribute some of the ROCE growth to that. Effectively this means that suppliers or short-term creditors are now funding 24% of the business, which is more than it was five years ago. It's worth keeping an eye on this because as the percentage of current liabilities to total assets increases, some aspects of risk also increase.

The Bottom Line

In summary, it's great to see that BioMaxima can compound returns by consistently reinvesting capital at increasing rates of return, because these are some of the key ingredients of those highly sought after multi-baggers. And with the stock having performed exceptionally well over the last five years, these patterns are being accounted for by investors. Therefore, we think it would be worth your time to check if these trends are going to continue.

BioMaxima does have some risks though, and we've spotted 3 warning signs for BioMaxima that you might be interested in.

If you want to search for more stocks that have been earning high returns, check out this free list of stocks with solid balance sheets that are also earning high 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.
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