If you're looking for a multi-bagger, there's a few things to keep an eye out for. Typically, we'll want to notice a trend of growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and alongside that, an expanding base 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. Although, when we looked at Jiang Su Suyan JingshenLtd (SHSE:603299), it didn't seem to tick all of these boxes.

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. The formula for this calculation on Jiang Su Suyan JingshenLtd is:

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

0.12 = CN¥813m ÷ (CN¥10b - CN¥3.4b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2023).

Thus, Jiang Su Suyan JingshenLtd has an ROCE of 12%. In absolute terms, that's a satisfactory return, but compared to the Chemicals industry average of 5.6% it's much better.

Historical performance is a great place to start when researching a stock so above you can see the gauge for Jiang Su Suyan JingshenLtd's ROCE against it's prior returns. If you'd like to look at how Jiang Su Suyan JingshenLtd has performed in the past in other metrics, you can view this free graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow.

So How Is Jiang Su Suyan JingshenLtd's ROCE Trending?

When we looked at the ROCE trend at Jiang Su Suyan JingshenLtd, we didn't gain much confidence. To be more specific, ROCE has fallen from 16% over the last five years. Meanwhile, the business is utilizing more capital but this hasn't moved the needle much in terms of sales in the past 12 months, so this could reflect longer term investments. It may take some time before the company starts to see any change in earnings from these investments.

On a side note, Jiang Su Suyan JingshenLtd has done well to pay down its current liabilities to 32% of total assets. That could partly explain why the ROCE has dropped. What's more, this can reduce some aspects of risk to the business because now the company's suppliers or short-term creditors are funding less of its operations. Since the business is basically funding more of its operations with it's own money, you could argue this has made the business less efficient at generating ROCE.

The Bottom Line On Jiang Su Suyan JingshenLtd's ROCE

To conclude, we've found that Jiang Su Suyan JingshenLtd is reinvesting in the business, but returns have been falling. Since the stock has gained an impressive 53% over the last five years, investors must think there's better things to come. However, unless these underlying trends turn more positive, we wouldn't get our hopes up too high.

On a separate note, we've found 1 warning sign for Jiang Su Suyan JingshenLtd you'll probably want to know about.

For those who like to invest in solid companies, check out this free list of companies with solid balance sheets and high 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.