Yahoo Finance Should You Be Impressed By Hilton Food Group's (LON:HFG) Returns on Capital?
To find a multi-bagger stock, what are the underlying trends we should look for in a business? Typically, we'll want to notice a trend of growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and alongside that, an expanding base of capital employed. Put simply, these types of businesses are compounding machines, meaning they are continually reinvesting their earnings at ever-higher rates of return. Having said that, from a first glance at Hilton Food Group (LON:HFG) we aren't jumping out of our chairs at how returns are trending, but let's have a deeper look.
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. Analysts use this formula to calculate it for Hilton Food Group:
Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) ÷ (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)
0.096 = UK£54m ÷ (UK£978m - UK£411m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to July 2020).
Therefore, Hilton Food Group has an ROCE of 9.6%. In absolute terms, that's a low return but it's around the Food industry average of 9.4%.
View our latest analysis for Hilton Food Group
In the above chart we have measured Hilton Food Group's 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 Hilton Food Group.
What The Trend Of ROCE Can Tell Us
On the surface, the trend of ROCE at Hilton Food Group doesn't inspire confidence. Around five years ago the returns on capital were 27%, but since then they've fallen to 9.6%. Although, given both revenue and the amount of assets employed in the business have increased, it could suggest the company is investing in growth, and the extra capital has led to a short-term reduction in ROCE. If these investments prove successful, this can bode very well for long term stock performance.
On a related note, Hilton Food Group has decreased its current liabilities to 42% of total assets. So we could link some of this to the decrease in ROCE. What's more, this can reduce some aspects of risk to the business because now the company's suppliers or short-term creditors are funding less of its operations. Since the business is basically funding more of its operations with it's own money, you could argue this has made the business less efficient at generating ROCE. Keep in mind 42% is still pretty high, so those risks are still somewhat prevalent.
The Bottom Line On Hilton Food Group's ROCE
While returns have fallen for Hilton Food Group in recent times, we're encouraged to see that sales are growing and that the business is reinvesting in its operations. And long term investors must be optimistic going forward because the stock has returned a huge 175% to shareholders in the last five years. So should these growth trends continue, we'd be optimistic on the stock going forward.
If you want to continue researching Hilton Food Group, you might be interested to know about the 1 warning sign that our analysis has discovered.
While Hilton Food 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.
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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