Our Take On The Returns On Capital At Gourmet Master (TPE:2723)

If you're looking for a multi-bagger, there's a few things to keep an eye out for. Ideally, a business will show two trends; firstly a growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and secondly, an increasing amount of capital employed. This shows us that it's a compounding machine, able to continually reinvest its earnings back into the business and generate higher returns. However, after briefly looking over the numbers, we don't think Gourmet Master (TPE:2723) has the makings of a multi-bagger going forward, but let's have a look at why that may be.

What is Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)?

If you haven't worked with ROCE before, it measures the 'return' (pre-tax profit) a company generates from capital employed in its business. To calculate this metric for Gourmet Master, this is the formula:

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

0.099 = NT$1.5b ÷ (NT$22b - NT$7.4b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2020).

Therefore, Gourmet Master has an ROCE of 9.9%. In absolute terms, that's a low return, but it's much better than the Hospitality industry average of 5.6%.

View our latest analysis for Gourmet Master

Above you can see how the current ROCE for Gourmet Master compares to its prior returns on capital, but there's only so much you can tell from the past. If you'd like to see what analysts are forecasting going forward, you should check out our free report for Gourmet Master.

How Are Returns Trending?

In terms of Gourmet Master's historical ROCE movements, the trend isn't fantastic. To be more specific, ROCE has fallen from 18% over the last five years. Given the business is employing more capital while revenue has slipped, this is a bit concerning. If this were to continue, you might be looking at a company that is trying to reinvest for growth but is actually losing market share since sales haven't increased.

The Key Takeaway

In summary, we're somewhat concerned by Gourmet Master's diminishing returns on increasing amounts of capital. Long term shareholders who've owned the stock over the last five years have experienced a 13% depreciation in their investment, so it appears the market might not like these trends either. That being the case, unless the underlying trends revert to a more positive trajectory, we'd consider looking elsewhere.

While Gourmet Master doesn't shine too bright in this respect, it's still worth seeing if the company is trading at attractive prices. You can find that out with our FREE intrinsic value estimation on our platform.

If you want to search for solid companies with great earnings, check out this free list of companies with good balance sheets and impressive returns on equity.

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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. 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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