Yahoo Finance Is Berkeley Group Holdings (LON:BKG) Likely To Turn Things Around?
There are a few key trends to look for if we want to identify the next multi-bagger. Ideally, a business will show two trends; firstly a growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and secondly, an increasing 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. Having said that, from a first glance at Berkeley Group Holdings (LON:BKG) 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)?
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. Analysts use this formula to calculate it for Berkeley Group Holdings:
Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) ÷ (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)
0.12 = UK£441m ÷ (UK£5.6b - UK£1.8b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to October 2020).
Thus, Berkeley Group Holdings has an ROCE of 12%. On its own, that's a standard return, however it's much better than the 6.7% generated by the Consumer Durables industry.
View our latest analysis for Berkeley Group Holdings
In the above chart we have measured Berkeley Group Holdings' prior ROCE against its prior performance, but the future is arguably more important. If you're interested, you can view the analysts predictions in our free report on analyst forecasts for the company.
So How Is Berkeley Group Holdings' ROCE Trending?
In terms of Berkeley Group Holdings' historical ROCE movements, the trend isn't fantastic. To be more specific, ROCE has fallen from 27% over the last five years. And considering revenue has dropped while employing more capital, we'd be cautious. This could mean that the business is losing its competitive advantage or market share, because while more money is being put into ventures, it's actually producing a lower return - "less bang for their buck" per se.
On a related note, Berkeley Group Holdings has decreased its current liabilities to 32% 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. Some would claim this reduces the business' efficiency at generating ROCE since it is now funding more of the operations with its own money.
The Bottom Line
We're a bit apprehensive about Berkeley Group Holdings because despite more capital being deployed in the business, returns on that capital and sales have both fallen. Yet despite these concerning fundamentals, the stock has performed strongly with a 61% return over the last five years, so investors appear very optimistic. In any case, the current underlying trends don't bode well for long term performance so unless they reverse, we'd start looking elsewhere.
If you want to continue researching Berkeley Group Holdings, you might be interested to know about the 2 warning signs that our analysis has discovered.
While Berkeley Group Holdings isn't earning the highest return, check out this free list of companies that are earning high returns on equity with solid balance sheets.
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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