To find a multi-bagger stock, what are the underlying trends we should look for in a business? Firstly, we'll want to see a proven return on capital employed (ROCE) that is increasing, and secondly, an expanding base of capital employed. Ultimately, this demonstrates that it's a business that is reinvesting profits at increasing rates of return. Speaking of which, we noticed some great changes in UG Healthcare's (Catalist:8K7) returns on capital, so let's have a look.
Return On Capital Employed (ROCE): What Is It?
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. The formula for this calculation on UG Healthcare is:
Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) ÷ (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)
0.20 = S$51m ÷ (S$288m - S$37m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2022).
Therefore, UG Healthcare has an ROCE of 20%. In absolute terms that's a great return and it's even better than the Medical Equipment industry average of 11%.
View our latest analysis for UG Healthcare
In the above chart we have measured UG Healthcare's prior ROCE against its prior performance, but the future is arguably more important. If you'd like, you can check out the forecasts from the analysts covering UG Healthcare here for free.
The Trend Of ROCE
The trends we've noticed at UG Healthcare are quite reassuring. The data shows that returns on capital have increased substantially over the last five years to 20%. The amount of capital employed has increased too, by 523%. The increasing returns on a growing amount of capital is common amongst multi-baggers and that's why we're impressed.
On a related note, the company's ratio of current liabilities to total assets has decreased to 13%, which basically reduces it's funding from the likes of short-term creditors or suppliers. So this improvement in ROCE has come from the business' underlying economics, which is great to see.
The Bottom Line
In summary, it's great to see that UG Healthcare can compound returns by consistently reinvesting capital at increasing rates of return, because these are some of the key ingredients of those highly sought after multi-baggers. Since the stock has returned a staggering 196% to shareholders over the last five years, it looks like investors are recognizing these changes. Therefore, we think it would be worth your time to check if these trends are going to continue.
One final note, you should learn about the 4 warning signs we've spotted with UG Healthcare (including 1 which shouldn't be ignored) .