If you're not sure where to start when looking for the next multi-bagger, there are a few key trends you should keep an eye out for. 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. Speaking of which, we noticed some great changes in NET263's (SZSE:002467) returns on capital, so let's have a look.

What Is Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)?

For those that aren't sure what ROCE is, it measures the amount of pre-tax profits a company can generate from the capital employed in its business. Analysts use this formula to calculate it for NET263:

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

0.02 = CN¥47m ÷ (CN¥2.7b - CN¥364m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2023).

Therefore, NET263 has an ROCE of 2.0%. Ultimately, that's a low return and it under-performs the Telecom industry average of 12%.

View our latest analysis for NET263

In the above chart we have measured NET263'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 report on analyst forecasts for the company.

So How Is NET263's ROCE Trending?

While there are companies with higher returns on capital out there, we still find the trend at NET263 promising. Looking at the data, we can see that even though capital employed in the business has remained relatively flat, the ROCE generated has risen by 58% over the last five years. So it's likely that the business is now reaping the full benefits of its past investments, since the capital employed hasn't changed considerably. It's worth looking deeper into this though because while it's great that the business is more efficient, it might also mean that going forward the areas to invest internally for the organic growth are lacking.

In Conclusion...

In summary, we're delighted to see that NET263 has been able to increase efficiencies and earn higher rates of return on the same amount of capital. And investors seem to expect more of this going forward, since the stock has rewarded shareholders with a 41% return over the last five years. Therefore, we think it would be worth your time to check if these trends are going to continue.

On a final note, we found 2 warning signs for NET263 (1 is significant) you should be aware of.

While NET263 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.