Here’s What’s Happening With Returns At Quickstep Holdings (ASX:QHL)
What are the early trends we should look for to identify a stock that could multiply in value over the long term? 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. 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 Quickstep Holdings (ASX:QHL) and its trend of ROCE, we really liked what we saw.
What is Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)?
If you haven't worked with ROCE before, it measures the 'return' (pre-tax profit) a company generates from capital employed in its business. The formula for this calculation on Quickstep Holdings is:
Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) ÷ (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)
0.10 = AU$4.6m ÷ (AU$67m - AU$23m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2020).
So, Quickstep Holdings has an ROCE of 10%. On its own, that's a standard return, however it's much better than the 7.3% generated by the Aerospace & Defense industry.
View our latest analysis for Quickstep Holdings
Above you can see how the current ROCE for Quickstep Holdings 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 report for Quickstep Holdings.
The Trend Of ROCE
We're delighted to see that Quickstep Holdings is reaping rewards from its investments and is now generating some pre-tax profits. Shareholders would no doubt be pleased with this because the business was loss-making five years ago but is is now generating 10% on its capital. Not only that, but the company is utilizing 261% more capital than before, but that's to be expected from a company trying to break into profitability. We like this trend, because it tells us the company has profitable reinvestment opportunities available to it, and if it continues going forward that can lead to a multi-bagger performance.
In another part of our analysis, we noticed that the company's ratio of current liabilities to total assets decreased to 34%, which broadly means the business is relying less on its suppliers or short-term creditors to fund its operations. So this improvement in ROCE has come from the business' underlying economics, which is great to see.
What We Can Learn From Quickstep Holdings' ROCE
Long story short, we're delighted to see that Quickstep Holdings' reinvestment activities have paid off and the company is now profitable. Given the stock has declined 43% in the last five years, this could be a good investment if the valuation and other metrics are also appealing. So researching this company further and determining whether or not these trends will continue seems justified.
One final note, you should learn about the 3 warning signs we've spotted with Quickstep Holdings (including 2 which 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.
This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. 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.
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