Yahoo Finance Some Investors May Be Worried About Blackmores' (ASX:BKL) Returns On Capital
Did you know there are some financial metrics that can provide clues of a potential multi-bagger? 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. Having said that, from a first glance at Blackmores (ASX:BKL) 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)?
Just to clarify if you're unsure, ROCE is a metric for evaluating how much pre-tax income (in percentage terms) a company earns on the capital invested in its business. Analysts use this formula to calculate it for Blackmores:
Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) ÷ (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)
0.12 = AU$50m ÷ (AU$560m - AU$144m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2021).
Thus, Blackmores has an ROCE of 12%. That's a relatively normal return on capital, and it's around the 14% generated by the Personal Products industry.
View our latest analysis for Blackmores
Above you can see how the current ROCE for Blackmores compares to its prior returns on capital, but there's only so much you can tell from the past. If you're interested, you can view the analysts predictions in our free report on analyst forecasts for the company.
What The Trend Of ROCE Can Tell Us
Unfortunately, the trend isn't great with ROCE falling from 59% five years ago, while capital employed has grown 66%. Usually this isn't ideal, but given Blackmores conducted a capital raising before their most recent earnings announcement, that would've likely contributed, at least partially, to the increased capital employed figure. The funds raised likely haven't been put to work yet so it's worth watching what happens in the future with Blackmores' earnings and if they change as a result from the capital raise.
On a related note, Blackmores has decreased its current liabilities to 26% of total assets. That could partly explain why the ROCE has dropped. 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.
The Key Takeaway
Bringing it all together, while we're somewhat encouraged by Blackmores' reinvestment in its own business, we're aware that returns are shrinking. And in the last five years, the stock has given away 13% so the market doesn't look too hopeful on these trends strengthening any time soon. All in all, the inherent trends aren't typical of multi-baggers, so if that's what you're after, we think you might have more luck elsewhere.
One more thing, we've spotted 1 warning sign facing Blackmores that you might find interesting.
While Blackmores 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. 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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