If you're looking for a multi-bagger, there's a few things to keep an eye out for. Ideally, a business will show two trends; firstly a growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and secondly, an increasing amount of capital employed. This shows us that it's a compounding machine, able to continually reinvest its earnings back into the business and generate higher returns. Although, when we looked at China Publishing & Media Holdings (SHSE:601949), it didn't seem to tick all of these boxes.

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. The formula for this calculation on China Publishing & Media Holdings is:

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

0.035 = CN¥359m ÷ (CN¥14b - CN¥4.3b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2022).

Thus, China Publishing & Media Holdings has an ROCE of 3.5%. In absolute terms, that's a low return and it also under-performs the Media industry average of 5.8%.

See our latest analysis for China Publishing & Media Holdings

Historical performance is a great place to start when researching a stock so above you can see the gauge for China Publishing & Media Holdings' ROCE against it's prior returns. If you'd like to look at how China Publishing & Media Holdings has performed in the past in other metrics, you can view this free graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow.

The Trend Of ROCE

On the surface, the trend of ROCE at China Publishing & Media Holdings doesn't inspire confidence. Over the last five years, returns on capital have decreased to 3.5% from 5.4% five years ago. Meanwhile, the business is utilizing more capital but this hasn't moved the needle much in terms of sales in the past 12 months, so this could reflect longer term investments. 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.

The Bottom Line

Bringing it all together, while we're somewhat encouraged by China Publishing & Media Holdings' reinvestment in its own business, we're aware that returns are shrinking. Unsurprisingly then, the total return to shareholders over the last five years has been flat. 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.

On a final note, we've found 2 warning signs for China Publishing & Media Holdings that we think you should be aware of.

While China Publishing & Media Holdings isn't earning the highest return, check out this free list of companies that are earning high returns on equity with solid balance sheets.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.
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.