There's Been No Shortage Of Growth Recently For Oponeo.pl's (WSE:OPN) Returns On Capital

If we want to find a potential multi-bagger, often there are underlying trends that can provide clues. Typically, we'll want to notice a trend of growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and alongside that, an expanding base 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. So when we looked at Oponeo.pl (WSE:OPN) and its trend of ROCE, we really liked what we saw.

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 Oponeo.pl:

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

0.14 = zł30m ÷ (zł447m - zł236m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2020).

Therefore, Oponeo.pl has an ROCE of 14%. That's a relatively normal return on capital, and it's around the 12% generated by the Online Retail industry.

Check out our latest analysis for Oponeo.pl

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'd like to look at how Oponeo.pl has performed in the past in other metrics, you can view this free graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow.

So How Is Oponeo.pl's ROCE Trending?

The trends we've noticed at Oponeo.pl are quite reassuring. The numbers show that in the last five years, the returns generated on capital employed have grown considerably to 14%. The amount of capital employed has increased too, by 186%. The increasing returns on a growing amount of capital is common amongst multi-baggers and that's why we're impressed.

Another thing to note, Oponeo.pl has a high ratio of current liabilities to total assets of 53%. 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. Ideally we'd like to see this reduce as that would mean fewer obligations bearing risks.

In Conclusion...

To sum it up, Oponeo.pl has proven it can reinvest in the business and generate higher returns on that capital employed, which is terrific. Since the stock has returned a solid 88% to shareholders over the last five years, it's fair to say investors are beginning to recognize these changes. With that being said, we still think the promising fundamentals mean the company deserves some further due diligence.

On a final note, we've found 1 warning sign for Oponeo.pl that we think you should be aware of.

While Oponeo.pl 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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