Returns On Capital Are Showing Encouraging Signs At Fuxing China Group (SGX:AWK)

If we want to find a potential multi-bagger, often there are underlying trends that can provide clues. 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. If you see this, it typically means it's a company with a great business model and plenty of profitable reinvestment opportunities. So on that note, Fuxing China Group (SGX:AWK) looks quite promising in regards to its trends of return on capital.

What is 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. To calculate this metric for Fuxing China Group, this is the formula:

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

0.026 = CN¥15m ÷ (CN¥978m - CN¥414m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2021).

Thus, Fuxing China Group has an ROCE of 2.6%. In absolute terms, that's a low return and it also under-performs the Luxury industry average of 10%.

View our latest analysis for Fuxing China Group

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 Fuxing China Group, check out these free graphs here.

The Trend Of ROCE

Shareholders will be relieved that Fuxing China Group has broken into profitability. The company was generating losses five years ago, but has managed to turn it around and as we saw earlier is now earning 2.6%, which is always encouraging. While returns have increased, the amount of capital employed by Fuxing China Group has remained flat over the period. So while we're happy that the business is more efficient, just keep in mind that could mean that going forward the business is lacking areas to invest internally for growth. Because in the end, a business can only get so efficient.

On a related note, the company's ratio of current liabilities to total assets has decreased to 42%, which basically reduces it's funding from the likes of short-term creditors or suppliers. This tells us that Fuxing China Group has grown its returns without a reliance on increasing their current liabilities, which we're very happy with. Nevertheless, there are some potential risks the company is bearing with current liabilities that high, so just keep that in mind.

In Conclusion...

To sum it up, Fuxing China Group is collecting higher returns from the same amount of capital, and that's impressive. Since the stock has only returned 10% to shareholders over the last five years, the promising fundamentals may not be recognized yet by investors. Given that, we'd look further into this stock in case it has more traits that could make it multiply in the long term.

Fuxing China Group does have some risks though, and we've spotted 1 warning sign for Fuxing China Group that you might be interested in.

While Fuxing China Group 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.