Return Trends At CCL Products (India) (NSE:CCL) Aren't Appealing

Simply Wall St · 11/26 00:09

What are the early trends we should look for to identify a stock that could multiply in value over the long term? Firstly, we'll want to see a proven return on capital employed (ROCE) that is increasing, and secondly, 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. That's why when we briefly looked at CCL Products (India)'s (NSE:CCL) ROCE trend, we were pretty happy with 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. The formula for this calculation on CCL Products (India) is:

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

0.15 = ₹3.9b ÷ (₹40b - ₹15b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2024).

Therefore, CCL Products (India) has an ROCE of 15%. In absolute terms, that's a satisfactory return, but compared to the Food industry average of 12% it's much better.

View our latest analysis for CCL Products (India)

roce
NSEI:CCL Return on Capital Employed November 26th 2024

Above you can see how the current ROCE for CCL Products (India) compares to its prior returns on capital, but there's only so much you can tell from the past. If you'd like, you can check out the forecasts from the analysts covering CCL Products (India) for free.

How Are Returns Trending?

While the current returns on capital are decent, they haven't changed much. Over the past five years, ROCE has remained relatively flat at around 15% and the business has deployed 118% more capital into its operations. 15% is a pretty standard return, and it provides some comfort knowing that CCL Products (India) has consistently earned this amount. Over long periods of time, returns like these might not be too exciting, but with consistency they can pay off in terms of share price returns.

Another point to note, we noticed the company has increased current liabilities over the last five years. This is intriguing because if current liabilities hadn't increased to 37% of total assets, this reported ROCE would probably be less than15% because total capital employed would be higher.The 15% ROCE could be even lower if current liabilities weren't 37% of total assets, because the the formula would show a larger base of total capital employed. So while current liabilities isn't high right now, keep an eye out in case it increases further, because this can introduce some elements of risk.

The Key Takeaway

To sum it up, CCL Products (India) has simply been reinvesting capital steadily, at those decent rates of return. And long term investors would be thrilled with the 296% return they've received over the last five years. So even though the stock might be more "expensive" than it was before, we think the strong fundamentals warrant this stock for further research.

If you want to know some of the risks facing CCL Products (India) we've found 3 warning signs (2 make us uncomfortable!) that you should be aware of before investing here.

If you want to search for solid companies with great earnings, check out this free list of companies with good balance sheets and impressive returns on equity.