If we want to find a stock that could multiply over the long term, what are the underlying trends we should look for? Firstly, we'd want to identify a growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and then alongside that, an ever-increasing base of capital employed. If you see this, it typically means it's a company with a great business model and plenty of profitable reinvestment opportunities. With that in mind, the ROCE of First High-School Education Group (NYSE:FHS) looks great, so lets see what the trend can tell us.

What Is Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)?

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. To calculate this metric for First High-School Education Group, this is the formula:

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

0.33 = CN¥112m ÷ (CN¥730m - CN¥395m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2022).

Therefore, First High-School Education Group has an ROCE of 33%. In absolute terms that's a great return and it's even better than the Consumer Services industry average of 7.8%.

View our latest analysis for First High-School Education Group

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 want to delve into the historical earnings, revenue and cash flow of First High-School Education Group, check out these free graphs here.

How Are Returns Trending?

We're delighted to see that First High-School Education Group is reaping rewards from its investments and is now generating some pre-tax profits. Shareholders would no doubt be pleased with this because the business was loss-making four years ago but is is now generating 33% on its capital. In addition to that, First High-School Education Group is employing 260% more capital than previously which is expected of a company that's trying to break into profitability. This can tell us that the company has plenty of reinvestment opportunities that are able to generate higher returns.

In another part of our analysis, we noticed that the company's ratio of current liabilities to total assets decreased to 54%, which broadly means the business is relying less on its suppliers or short-term creditors to fund its operations. So this improvement in ROCE has come from the business' underlying economics, which is great to see. However, current liabilities are still at a pretty high level, so just be aware that this can bring with it some risks.