If you're looking for a multi-bagger, there's a few things to keep an eye out for. Firstly, we'd want to identify a growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and then alongside that, an ever-increasing base of capital employed. Basically this means that a company has profitable initiatives that it can continue to reinvest in, which is a trait of a compounding machine. Although, when we looked at Wuxi Boton Technology (SZSE:300031), 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. To calculate this metric for Wuxi Boton Technology, this is the formula:

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

0.024 = CN¥92m ÷ (CN¥5.6b - CN¥1.7b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2023).

Therefore, Wuxi Boton Technology has an ROCE of 2.4%. Ultimately, that's a low return and it under-performs the Entertainment industry average of 4.4%.

In the above chart we have measured Wuxi Boton Technology's prior ROCE against its prior performance, but the future is arguably more important. If you'd like, you can check out the forecasts from the analysts covering Wuxi Boton Technology for free.

What The Trend Of ROCE Can Tell Us

The trend of ROCE doesn't look fantastic because it's fallen from 13% five years ago, while the business's capital employed increased by 48%. Usually this isn't ideal, but given Wuxi Boton Technology conducted a capital raising before their most recent earnings announcement, that would've likely contributed, at least partially, to the increased capital employed figure. The funds raised likely haven't been put to work yet so it's worth watching what happens in the future with Wuxi Boton Technology's earnings and if they change as a result from the capital raise.

The Bottom Line

Bringing it all together, while we're somewhat encouraged by Wuxi Boton Technology's reinvestment in its own business, we're aware that returns are shrinking. Additionally, the stock's total return to shareholders over the last five years has been flat, which isn't too surprising. In any case, the stock doesn't have these traits of a multi-bagger discussed above, so if that's what you're looking for, we think you'd have more luck elsewhere.

If you're still interested in Wuxi Boton Technology it's worth checking out our FREE intrinsic value approximation for 300031 to see if it's trading at an attractive price in other respects.

While Wuxi Boton 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.