How Has Chyang Sheng Dyeing & Finishing (TPE:1463) Allocated Its Capital?

If we're looking to avoid a business that is in decline, what are the trends that can warn us ahead of time? Businesses in decline often have two underlying trends, firstly, a declining return on capital employed (ROCE) and a declining base of capital employed. This indicates the company is producing less profit from its investments and its total assets are decreasing. And from a first read, things don't look too good at Chyang Sheng Dyeing & Finishing (TPE:1463), so let's see why.

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 Chyang Sheng Dyeing & Finishing is:

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

0.0034 = NT$8.0m ÷ (NT$2.6b - NT$272m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2020).

Thus, Chyang Sheng Dyeing & Finishing has an ROCE of 0.3%. In absolute terms, that's a low return and it also under-performs the Luxury industry average of 3.0%.

See our latest analysis for Chyang Sheng Dyeing & Finishing

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 Chyang Sheng Dyeing & Finishing, check out these free graphs here.

How Are Returns Trending?

In terms of Chyang Sheng Dyeing & Finishing's historical ROCE movements, the trend doesn't inspire confidence. About five years ago, returns on capital were 0.8%, however they're now substantially lower than that as we saw above. Meanwhile, capital employed in the business has stayed roughly the flat over the period. Companies that exhibit these attributes tend to not be shrinking, but they can be mature and facing pressure on their margins from competition. So because these trends aren't typically conducive to creating a multi-bagger, we wouldn't hold our breath on Chyang Sheng Dyeing & Finishing becoming one if things continue as they have.

On a related note, Chyang Sheng Dyeing & Finishing has decreased its current liabilities to 10% of total assets. So we could link some of this to the decrease in ROCE. What's more, this can reduce some aspects of risk to the business because now the company's suppliers or short-term creditors are funding less of its operations. Some would claim this reduces the business' efficiency at generating ROCE since it is now funding more of the operations with its own money.

The Key Takeaway

All in all, the lower returns from the same amount of capital employed aren't exactly signs of a compounding machine. Investors must expect better things on the horizon though because the stock has risen 10% in the last five years. Either way, we aren't huge fans of the current trends and so with that we think you might find better investments elsewhere.

If you'd like to know more about Chyang Sheng Dyeing & Finishing, we've spotted 4 warning signs, and 1 of them is concerning.

While Chyang Sheng Dyeing & Finishing 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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