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. Ultimately, this demonstrates that it's a business that is reinvesting profits at increasing rates of return. So when we looked at COSCO SHIPPING Technology (SZSE:002401) and its trend of ROCE, we really liked what we saw.

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. The formula for this calculation on COSCO SHIPPING Technology is:

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

0.10 = CN¥167m ÷ (CN¥2.7b - CN¥1.1b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2023).

So, COSCO SHIPPING Technology has an ROCE of 10%. In absolute terms, that's a satisfactory return, but compared to the IT industry average of 4.4% it's much better.

While the past is not representative of the future, it can be helpful to know how a company has performed historically, which is why we have this chart above. If you want to delve into the historical earnings , check out these free graphs detailing revenue and cash flow performance of COSCO SHIPPING Technology.

What Does the ROCE Trend For COSCO SHIPPING Technology Tell Us?

Investors would be pleased with what's happening at COSCO SHIPPING Technology. Over the last five years, returns on capital employed have risen substantially to 10%. The company is effectively making more money per dollar of capital used, and it's worth noting that the amount of capital has increased too, by 86%. So we're very much inspired by what we're seeing at COSCO SHIPPING Technology thanks to its ability to profitably reinvest capital.

In another part of our analysis, we noticed that the company's ratio of current liabilities to total assets decreased to 40%, which broadly means the business is relying less on its suppliers or short-term creditors to fund its operations. So this improvement in ROCE has come from the business' underlying economics, which is great to see.

The Bottom Line On COSCO SHIPPING Technology's ROCE

To sum it up, COSCO SHIPPING Technology has proven it can reinvest in the business and generate higher returns on that capital employed, which is terrific. And investors seem to expect more of this going forward, since the stock has rewarded shareholders with a 74% return over the last five years. Therefore, we think it would be worth your time to check if these trends are going to continue.

If you want to continue researching COSCO SHIPPING Technology, you might be interested to know about the 1 warning sign that our analysis has discovered.

While COSCO SHIPPING Technology may not currently earn the highest returns, we've compiled a list of companies that currently earn more than 25% return on equity. Check out this free list here.

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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.