There are a few key trends to look for if we want to identify the next multi-bagger. 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. With that in mind, we've noticed some promising trends at PTT Synergy Group Berhad (KLSE:PTT) so let's look a bit deeper.
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. The formula for this calculation on PTT Synergy Group Berhad is:
Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) ÷ (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)
0.13 = RM18m ÷ (RM242m - RM100m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2022).
Therefore, PTT Synergy Group Berhad has an ROCE of 13%. In absolute terms, that's a satisfactory return, but compared to the Trade Distributors industry average of 8.9% it's much better.
See our latest analysis for PTT Synergy Group Berhad
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'd like to look at how PTT Synergy Group Berhad has performed in the past in other metrics, you can view this free graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow.
How Are Returns Trending?
PTT Synergy Group Berhad is displaying some positive trends. The numbers show that in the last five years, the returns generated on capital employed have grown considerably to 13%. Basically the business is earning more per dollar of capital invested and in addition to that, 118% more capital is being employed now too. So we're very much inspired by what we're seeing at PTT Synergy Group Berhad thanks to its ability to profitably reinvest capital.
On a side note, we noticed that the improvement in ROCE appears to be partly fueled by an increase in current liabilities. Essentially the business now has suppliers or short-term creditors funding about 41% of its operations, which isn't ideal. And with current liabilities at those levels, that's pretty high.
The Bottom Line On PTT Synergy Group Berhad's ROCE
A company that is growing its returns on capital and can consistently reinvest in itself is a highly sought after trait, and that's what PTT Synergy Group Berhad has. Since the stock has returned a staggering 146% 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.