Investors Will Want New Century Resources' (ASX:NCZ) Growth In ROCE To Persist

To find a multi-bagger stock, what are the underlying trends we should look for in a business? Amongst other things, we'll want to see two things; firstly, a growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and secondly, an expansion in the company's 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. Speaking of which, we noticed some great changes in New Century Resources' (ASX:NCZ) 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 New Century Resources is:

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

0.19 = AU$61m ÷ (AU$463m - AU$140m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2022).

Thus, New Century Resources has an ROCE of 19%. On its own, that's a standard return, however it's much better than the 10% generated by the Metals and Mining industry.

View our latest analysis for New Century Resources

roce
roce

In the above chart we have measured New Century Resources' 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 report for New Century Resources.

How Are Returns Trending?

New Century Resources has recently broken into profitability so their prior investments seem to be paying off. About five years ago the company was generating losses but things have turned around because it's now earning 19% on its capital. Not only that, but the company is utilizing 6,238% 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 30%, which broadly means the business is relying less on its suppliers or short-term creditors to fund its operations. This tells us that New Century Resources has grown its returns without a reliance on increasing their current liabilities, which we're very happy with.

What We Can Learn From New Century Resources' ROCE

Overall, New Century Resources gets a big tick from us thanks in most part to the fact that it is now profitable and is reinvesting in its business. And since the stock has dived 95% over the last five years, there may be other factors affecting the company's prospects. Still, it's worth doing some further research to see if the trends will continue into the future.

If you'd like to know about the risks facing New Century Resources, we've discovered 2 warning signs that you should be aware of.

While New Century Resources isn't earning the highest return, check out this free list of companies that are earning high returns on equity with solid balance sheets.

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.

Join A Paid User Research Session
You’ll receive a US$30 Amazon Gift card for 1 hour of your time while helping us build better investing tools for the individual investors like yourself. Sign up here