Be Wary Of Textainer Group Holdings (NYSE:TGH) And Its Returns On Capital

When researching a stock for investment, what can tell us that the company is in decline? Typically, we'll see the trend of both return on capital employed (ROCE) declining and this usually coincides with a decreasing amount of capital employed. This indicates to us that the business is not only shrinking the size of its net assets, but its returns are falling as well. On that note, looking into Textainer Group Holdings (NYSE:TGH), we weren't too upbeat about how things were going.

Understanding 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. Analysts use this formula to calculate it for Textainer Group Holdings:

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

0.042 = US$200m ÷ (US$5.2b - US$426m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2020).

So, Textainer Group Holdings has an ROCE of 4.2%. In absolute terms, that's a low return and it also under-performs the Trade Distributors industry average of 8.5%.

See our latest analysis for Textainer Group Holdings

In the above chart we have measured Textainer Group Holdings' prior ROCE against its prior performance, but the future is arguably more important. If you'd like to see what analysts are forecasting going forward, you should check out our free report for Textainer Group Holdings.

How Are Returns Trending?

We are a bit worried about the trend of returns on capital at Textainer Group Holdings. Unfortunately the returns on capital have diminished from the 6.7% that they were earning five years ago. Meanwhile, capital employed in the business has stayed roughly the flat over the period. Since returns are falling and the business has the same amount of assets employed, this can suggest it's a mature business that hasn't had much growth in the last five years. If these trends continue, we wouldn't expect Textainer Group Holdings to turn into a multi-bagger.

In Conclusion...

All in all, the lower returns from the same amount of capital employed aren't exactly signs of a compounding machine. In spite of that, the stock has delivered a 11% return to shareholders who held over 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.

Textainer Group Holdings does have some risks, we noticed 3 warning signs (and 1 which doesn't sit too well with us) we think you should know about.

While Textainer Group 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. 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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