To find a multi-bagger stock, what are the underlying trends we should look for in a business? One common approach is to try and find a company with returns on capital employed (ROCE) that are increasing, in conjunction with a growing amount 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. So, when we ran our eye over JNBY Design's (HKG:3306) trend of ROCE, we really liked what we saw.

Understanding Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)

Just to clarify if you're unsure, ROCE is a metric for evaluating how much pre-tax income (in percentage terms) a company earns on the capital invested in its business. The formula for this calculation on JNBY Design is:

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

0.42 = CN¥1.1b ÷ (CN¥4.5b - CN¥1.8b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2023).

Therefore, JNBY Design has an ROCE of 42%. In absolute terms that's a great return and it's even better than the Luxury industry average of 10%.

In the above chart we have measured JNBY Design's prior ROCE against its prior performance, but the future is arguably more important. If you're interested, you can view the analysts predictions in our free analyst report for JNBY Design .

What Does the ROCE Trend For JNBY Design Tell Us?

JNBY Design deserves to be commended in regards to it's returns. The company has employed 87% more capital in the last five years, and the returns on that capital have remained stable at 42%. With returns that high, it's great that the business can continually reinvest its money at such appealing rates of return. If these trends can continue, it wouldn't surprise us if the company became a multi-bagger.

The Bottom Line On JNBY Design's ROCE

In summary, we're delighted to see that JNBY Design has been compounding returns by reinvesting at consistently high rates of return, as these are common traits of a multi-bagger. Therefore it's no surprise that shareholders have earned a respectable 61% return if they held over the last five years. So while the positive underlying trends may be accounted for by investors, we still think this stock is worth looking into further.

JNBY Design does have some risks though, and we've spotted 2 warning signs for JNBY Design that you might be interested in.

High returns are a key ingredient to strong performance, so check out our free list ofstocks 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.