GWR Group (ASX:GWR) Shareholders Will Want The ROCE Trajectory To Continue

If you're looking for a multi-bagger, there's a few things to keep an eye out for. Ideally, a business will show two trends; firstly a growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and secondly, an increasing amount of capital employed. Ultimately, this demonstrates that it's a business that is reinvesting profits at increasing rates of return. So when we looked at GWR Group (ASX:GWR) and its trend of ROCE, we really liked what we saw.

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. Analysts use this formula to calculate it for GWR Group:

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

0.16 = AU$2.8m ÷ (AU$27m - AU$9.0m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2021).

Thus, GWR Group has an ROCE of 16%. In absolute terms, that's a satisfactory return, but compared to the Metals and Mining industry average of 8.4% it's much better.

See our latest analysis for GWR Group

While the past is not representative of the future, it can be helpful to know how a company has performed historically, which is why we have this chart above. If you're interested in investigating GWR Group's past further, check out this free graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow.

The Trend Of ROCE

Shareholders will be relieved that GWR Group has broken into profitability. While the business was unprofitable in the past, it's now turned things around and is earning 16% on its capital. While returns have increased, the amount of capital employed by GWR Group has remained flat over the period. That being said, while an increase in efficiency is no doubt appealing, it'd be helpful to know if the company does have any investment plans going forward. After all, a company can only become a long term multi-bagger if it continually reinvests in itself at high rates of return.

For the record though, there was a noticeable increase in the company's current liabilities over the period, so we would attribute some of the ROCE growth to that. The current liabilities has increased to 33% of total assets, so the business is now more funded by the likes of its suppliers or short-term creditors. Keep an eye out for future increases because when the ratio of current liabilities to total assets gets particularly high, this can introduce some new risks for the business.

The Bottom Line On GWR Group's ROCE

To bring it all together, GWR Group has done well to increase the returns it's generating from its capital employed. Investors may not be impressed by the favorable underlying trends yet because over the last five years the stock has only returned 2.4% to shareholders. So exploring more about this stock could uncover a good opportunity, if the valuation and other metrics stack up.

On a final note, we found 5 warning signs for GWR Group (1 is a bit concerning) you should be aware of.

While GWR Group may not currently earn the highest returns, we've compiled a list of companies that currently earn more than 25% return on equity. Check out this free list here.

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

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.

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