When it comes to investing, there are some useful financial metrics that can warn us when a business is potentially in trouble. Typically, we'll see the trend of both return on capital employed (ROCE) declining and this usually coincides with a decreasing amount of capital employed. This indicates to us that the business is not only shrinking the size of its net assets, but its returns are falling as well. So after we looked into N2N Connect Berhad (KLSE:N2N), the trends above didn't look too great.
Return On Capital Employed (ROCE): What Is It?
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. Analysts use this formula to calculate it for N2N Connect Berhad:
Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) ÷ (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)
0.045 = RM13m ÷ (RM320m - RM24m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2023).
Thus, N2N Connect Berhad has an ROCE of 4.5%. Ultimately, that's a low return and it under-performs the Software industry average of 9.0%.
See our latest analysis for N2N Connect Berhad
Above you can see how the current ROCE for N2N Connect Berhad compares to its prior returns on capital, but there's only so much you can tell from the past. If you'd like, you can check out the forecasts from the analysts covering N2N Connect Berhad here for free.
What Can We Tell From N2N Connect Berhad's ROCE Trend?
In terms of N2N Connect Berhad's historical ROCE movements, the trend doesn't inspire confidence. About five years ago, returns on capital were 8.9%, however they're now substantially lower than that as we saw above. On top of that, it's worth noting that the amount of capital employed within the business has remained relatively steady. Companies that exhibit these attributes tend to not be shrinking, but they can be mature and facing pressure on their margins from competition. If these trends continue, we wouldn't expect N2N Connect Berhad to turn into a multi-bagger.
What We Can Learn From N2N Connect Berhad's ROCE
All in all, the lower returns from the same amount of capital employed aren't exactly signs of a compounding machine. Long term shareholders who've owned the stock over the last five years have experienced a 57% depreciation in their investment, so it appears the market might not like these trends either. Unless there is a shift to a more positive trajectory in these metrics, we would look elsewhere.