Finding a business that has the potential to grow substantially is not easy, but it is possible if we look at a few key financial metrics. Ideally, a business will show two trends; firstly a growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and secondly, an increasing 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. Although, when we looked at China Resources Power Holdings (HKG:836), it didn't seem to tick all of these boxes.

Understanding Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)

Just to clarify if you're unsure, ROCE is a metric for evaluating how much pre-tax income (in percentage terms) a company earns on the capital invested in its business. Analysts use this formula to calculate it for China Resources Power Holdings:

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

0.021 = HK$4.5b ÷ (HK$283b - HK$70b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2022).

Therefore, China Resources Power Holdings has an ROCE of 2.1%. In absolute terms, that's a low return and it also under-performs the Renewable Energy industry average of 6.8%.

Check out our latest analysis for China Resources Power Holdings

Above you can see how the current ROCE for China Resources Power Holdings compares to its prior returns on capital, but there's only so much you can tell from the past. If you're interested, you can view the analysts predictions in our free report on analyst forecasts for the company.

What Can We Tell From China Resources Power Holdings' ROCE Trend?

When we looked at the ROCE trend at China Resources Power Holdings, we didn't gain much confidence. To be more specific, ROCE has fallen from 8.5% over the last five years. However, given capital employed and revenue have both increased it appears that the business is currently pursuing growth, at the consequence of short term returns. If these investments prove successful, this can bode very well for long term stock performance.

What We Can Learn From China Resources Power Holdings' ROCE

While returns have fallen for China Resources Power Holdings in recent times, we're encouraged to see that sales are growing and that the business is reinvesting in its operations. In light of this, the stock has only gained 40% over the last five years. Therefore we'd recommend looking further into this stock to confirm if it has the makings of a good investment.

If you want to know some of the risks facing China Resources Power Holdings we've found 3 warning signs (1 shouldn't be ignored!) that you should be aware of before investing here.

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. 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.