Autohome (NYSE:ATHM) Will Want To Turn Around Its Return Trends

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If we want to find a potential multi-bagger, often there are underlying trends that can provide clues. Firstly, we'd want to identify a growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and then alongside that, an ever-increasing base of capital employed. Put simply, these types of businesses are compounding machines, meaning they are continually reinvesting their earnings at ever-higher rates of return. Although, when we looked at Autohome (NYSE:ATHM), it didn't seem to tick all of these boxes.

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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. To calculate this metric for Autohome, this is the formula:

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

0.039 = CN¥1.0b ÷ (CN¥30b - CN¥4.5b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2024).

Therefore, Autohome has an ROCE of 3.9%. Ultimately, that's a low return and it under-performs the Interactive Media and Services industry average of 7.4%.

View our latest analysis for Autohome

roce
NYSE:ATHM Return on Capital Employed April 16th 2025

Above you can see how the current ROCE for Autohome compares to its prior returns on capital, but there's only so much you can tell from the past. If you'd like to see what analysts are forecasting going forward, you should check out our free analyst report for Autohome .

What The Trend Of ROCE Can Tell Us

On the surface, the trend of ROCE at Autohome doesn't inspire confidence. Over the last five years, returns on capital have decreased to 3.9% from 21% five years ago. On the other hand, the company has been employing more capital without a corresponding improvement in sales in the last year, which could suggest these investments are longer term plays. 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 On Autohome's ROCE

In summary, Autohome is reinvesting funds back into the business for growth but unfortunately it looks like sales haven't increased much just yet. Since the stock has declined 60% over the last five years, investors may not be too optimistic on this trend improving either. 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.

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