Returns On Capital Are Showing Encouraging Signs At China Shenshan Orchard Holdings (SGX:BKV)

If you're not sure where to start when looking for the next multi-bagger, there are a few key trends you should 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. Basically this means that a company has profitable initiatives that it can continue to reinvest in, which is a trait of a compounding machine. Speaking of which, we noticed some great changes in China Shenshan Orchard Holdings' (SGX:BKV) returns on capital, so let's have a look.

Return On Capital Employed (ROCE): What Is It?

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 China Shenshan Orchard Holdings is:

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

0.016 = CN¥20m ÷ (CN¥1.3b - CN¥30m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2022).

Therefore, China Shenshan Orchard Holdings has an ROCE of 1.6%. Ultimately, that's a low return and it under-performs the Food industry average of 12%.

View our latest analysis for China Shenshan Orchard Holdings

Historical performance is a great place to start when researching a stock so above you can see the gauge for China Shenshan Orchard Holdings' ROCE against it's prior returns. If you'd like to look at how China Shenshan Orchard Holdings has performed in the past in other metrics, you can view this free graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow.

How Are Returns Trending?

China Shenshan Orchard Holdings has broken into the black (profitability) and we're sure it's a sight for sore eyes. The company was generating losses five years ago, but has managed to turn it around and as we saw earlier is now earning 1.6%, which is always encouraging. On top of that, what's interesting is that the amount of capital being employed has remained steady, so the business hasn't needed to put any additional money to work to generate these higher returns. With no noticeable increase in capital employed, it's worth knowing what the company plans on doing going forward in regards to reinvesting and growing the business. Because in the end, a business can only get so efficient.

In another part of our analysis, we noticed that the company's ratio of current liabilities to total assets decreased to 2.3%, which broadly means the business is relying less on its suppliers or short-term creditors to fund its operations. So shareholders would be pleased that the growth in returns has mostly come from underlying business performance.

The Bottom Line

In summary, we're delighted to see that China Shenshan Orchard Holdings has been able to increase efficiencies and earn higher rates of return on the same amount of capital. Given the stock has declined 41% in the last five years, this could be a good investment if the valuation and other metrics are also appealing. With that in mind, we believe the promising trends warrant this stock for further investigation.

If you want to know some of the risks facing China Shenshan Orchard Holdings we've found 3 warning signs (2 don't sit too well with us!) that you should be aware of before investing here.

While China Shenshan Orchard Holdings 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.