There are a few key trends to look for if we want to identify the next multi-bagger. In a perfect world, we'd like to see a company investing more capital into its business and ideally the returns earned from that capital are also increasing. This shows us that it's a compounding machine, able to continually reinvest its earnings back into the business and generate higher returns. In light of that, when we looked at SAIC Motor (SHSE:600104) and its ROCE trend, we weren't exactly thrilled.

What Is 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 SAIC Motor:

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

0.022 = CN¥10b ÷ (CN¥952b - CN¥493b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2023).

Thus, SAIC Motor has an ROCE of 2.2%. In absolute terms, that's a low return and it also under-performs the Auto industry average of 3.0%.

Above you can see how the current ROCE for SAIC Motor 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 analyst report for SAIC Motor .

What The Trend Of ROCE Can Tell Us

In terms of SAIC Motor's historical ROCE movements, the trend isn't fantastic. Over the last five years, returns on capital have decreased to 2.2% from 8.2% five years ago. However it looks like SAIC Motor might be reinvesting for long term growth because while capital employed has increased, the company's sales haven't changed much in the last 12 months. It's worth keeping an eye on the company's earnings from here on to see if these investments do end up contributing to the bottom line.

On a side note, SAIC Motor's current liabilities are still rather high at 52% of total assets. This can bring about some risks because the company is basically operating with a rather large reliance on its suppliers or other sorts of short-term creditors. Ideally we'd like to see this reduce as that would mean fewer obligations bearing risks.

The Key Takeaway

To conclude, we've found that SAIC Motor is reinvesting in the business, but returns have been falling. Since the stock has declined 29% over the last five years, investors may not be too optimistic on this trend improving either. On the whole, we aren't too inspired by the underlying trends and we think there may be better chances of finding a multi-bagger elsewhere.

One more thing to note, we've identified 2 warning signs with SAIC Motor and understanding these should be part of your investment process.

While SAIC Motor 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.