When it comes to investing, there are some useful financial metrics that can warn us when a business is potentially in trouble. A business that's potentially in decline often shows two trends, a return on capital employed (ROCE) that's declining, and a base of capital employed that's also declining. This indicates to us that the business is not only shrinking the size of its net assets, but its returns are falling as well. So after we looked into Galaxy Entertainment Group (HKG:27), the trends above didn't look too great.

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. Analysts use this formula to calculate it for Galaxy Entertainment Group:

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

0.0089 = HK$642m ÷ (HK$84b - HK$11b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2023).

Therefore, Galaxy Entertainment Group has an ROCE of 0.9%. In absolute terms, that's a low return and it also under-performs the Hospitality industry average of 3.5%.

View our latest analysis for Galaxy Entertainment Group

Above you can see how the current ROCE for Galaxy Entertainment Group 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.

So How Is Galaxy Entertainment Group's ROCE Trending?

In terms of Galaxy Entertainment Group's historical ROCE movements, the trend doesn't inspire confidence. To be more specific, the ROCE was 19% five years ago, but since then it has dropped noticeably. And on the capital employed front, the business is utilizing roughly the same amount of capital as it was back then. 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 Galaxy Entertainment Group to turn into a multi-bagger.

On a side note, Galaxy Entertainment Group has done well to pay down its current liabilities to 14% of total assets. So we could link some of this to the decrease in ROCE. Effectively this means their suppliers or short-term creditors are funding less of the business, which reduces some elements of risk. 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 Bottom Line On Galaxy Entertainment Group's ROCE

In summary, it's unfortunate that Galaxy Entertainment Group is generating lower returns from the same amount of capital. It should come as no surprise then that the stock has fallen 16% over the last five years, so it looks like investors are recognizing these changes. With underlying trends that aren't great in these areas, we'd consider looking elsewhere.

On a separate note, we've found 1 warning sign for Galaxy Entertainment Group you'll probably want to know about.

While Galaxy Entertainment Group 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.