If you’re not sure where to start when looking for the next multi-bagger, there are a few key trends you should keep an eye out for. In a perfect world, we’d like to see a company investing more capital into its business and ideally the returns earned from that capital are also increasing. Put simply, these types of businesses are compounding machines, meaning they are continually reinvesting their earnings at ever-higher rates of return. However, after briefly looking over the numbers, we don’t think Advanced Energy Solution Holding (TWSE:6781) has the makings of a multi-bagger going forward, but let’s have a look at why that may be.

Return On Capital Employed (ROCE): What Is It?

If you haven’t worked with ROCE before, it measures the ‘return’ (pre-tax profit) a company generates from capital employed in its business. To calculate this metric for Advanced Energy Solution Holding, this is the formula:

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

0.14 = NT$2.0b ÷ (NT$21b – NT$7.0b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2024).

So, Advanced Energy Solution Holding has an ROCE of 14%. In absolute terms, that’s a satisfactory return, but compared to the Electrical industry average of 6.7% it’s much better.

See our latest analysis for Advanced Energy Solution Holding

In the above chart we have measured Advanced Energy Solution Holding’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 Advanced Energy Solution Holding for free.

What The Trend Of ROCE Can Tell Us

On the surface, the trend of ROCE at Advanced Energy Solution Holding doesn’t inspire confidence. To be more specific, ROCE has fallen from 22% over the last five years. And considering revenue has dropped while employing more capital, we’d be cautious. If this were to continue, you might be looking at a company that is trying to reinvest for growth but is actually losing market share since sales haven’t increased.

What We Can Learn From Advanced Energy Solution Holding’s ROCE

We’re a bit apprehensive about Advanced Energy Solution Holding because despite more capital being deployed in the business, returns on that capital and sales have both fallen. Investors haven’t taken kindly to these developments, since the stock has declined 28% from where it was three years ago. That being the case, unless the underlying trends revert to a more positive trajectory, we’d consider looking elsewhere.

Advanced Energy Solution Holding does come with some risks though, we found 2 warning signs in our investment analysis, and 1 of those can’t be ignored…

If you want to search for solid companies with great earnings, check out this free list of companies with good balance sheets and impressive returns on equity.

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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.

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