What trends should we look for it we want to identify stocks that can multiply in value over the long term? 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. This shows us that it's a compounding machine, able to continually reinvest its earnings back into the business and generate higher returns. With that in mind, we've noticed some promising trends at Shenzhen Guangju Energy (SZSE:000096) so let's look a bit deeper.

What Is 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 Shenzhen Guangju Energy is:

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

0.047 = CN¥127m ÷ (CN¥2.8b - CN¥110m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2023).

Therefore, Shenzhen Guangju Energy has an ROCE of 4.7%. Ultimately, that's a low return and it under-performs the Oil and Gas industry average of 12%.

Historical performance is a great place to start when researching a stock so above you can see the gauge for Shenzhen Guangju Energy's ROCE against it's prior returns. If you want to delve into the historical earnings , check out these free graphs detailing revenue and cash flow performance of Shenzhen Guangju Energy.

How Are Returns Trending?

While the ROCE isn't as high as some other companies out there, it's great to see it's on the up. More specifically, while the company has kept capital employed relatively flat over the last five years, the ROCE has climbed 140% in that same time. So it's likely that the business is now reaping the full benefits of its past investments, since the capital employed hasn't changed considerably. It's worth looking deeper into this though because while it's great that the business is more efficient, it might also mean that going forward the areas to invest internally for the organic growth are lacking.

The Key Takeaway

To sum it up, Shenzhen Guangju Energy is collecting higher returns from the same amount of capital, and that's impressive. Since the stock has only returned 2.8% to shareholders over the last five years, the promising fundamentals may not be recognized yet by investors. Given that, we'd look further into this stock in case it has more traits that could make it multiply in the long term.

Like most companies, Shenzhen Guangju Energy does come with some risks, and we've found 1 warning sign that you should be aware of.

While Shenzhen Guangju Energy 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.