In This Article:
If we want to find a potential multi-bagger, often there are underlying trends that can provide clues. 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. This shows us that it's a compounding machine, able to continually reinvest its earnings back into the business and generate higher returns. So when we looked at 17LIVE Group (SGX:LVR) and its trend of ROCE, we really liked what we saw.
What Is Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)?
For those who don't know, ROCE is a measure of a company's yearly pre-tax profit (its return), relative to the capital employed in the business. Analysts use this formula to calculate it for 17LIVE Group:
Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) ÷ (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)
0.15 = US$14m ÷ (US$164m - US$70m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2023).
So, 17LIVE Group has an ROCE of 15%. On its own, that's a standard return, however it's much better than the 7.0% generated by the Entertainment industry.
Check out our latest analysis for 17LIVE Group
In the above chart we have measured 17LIVE Group's prior ROCE against its prior performance, but the future is arguably more important. If you'd like to see what analysts are forecasting going forward, you should check out our free analyst report for 17LIVE Group .
The Trend Of ROCE
The fact that 17LIVE Group is now generating some pre-tax profits from its prior investments is very encouraging. Shareholders would no doubt be pleased with this because the business was loss-making five years ago but is is now generating 15% on its capital. Not only that, but the company is utilizing 129% more capital than before, but that's to be expected from a company trying to break into profitability. This can indicate that there's plenty of opportunities to invest capital internally and at ever higher rates, both common traits of a multi-bagger.
Advertisement: High Yield Savings Offers
In another part of our analysis, we noticed that the company's ratio of current liabilities to total assets decreased to 43%, which broadly means the business is relying less on its suppliers or short-term creditors to fund its operations. So shareholders would be pleased that the growth in returns has mostly come from underlying business performance. Nevertheless, there are some potential risks the company is bearing with current liabilities that high, so just keep that in mind.
What We Can Learn From 17LIVE Group's ROCE
To the delight of most shareholders, 17LIVE Group has now broken into profitability. Although the company may be facing some issues elsewhere since the stock has plunged 80% in the last year. Regardless, we think the underlying fundamentals warrant this stock for further investigation.