Yahoo Finance Are Finsbury Food Group Plc’s (LON:FIF) Returns On Investment Worth Your While?
Today we'll evaluate Finsbury Food Group Plc (LON:FIF) to determine whether it could have potential as an investment idea. In particular, we'll consider its Return On Capital Employed (ROCE), as that can give us insight into how profitably the company is able to employ capital in its business.
First up, we'll look at what ROCE is and how we calculate it. Next, we'll compare it to others in its industry. Finally, we'll look at how its current liabilities affect its ROCE.
Return On Capital Employed (ROCE): What is it?
ROCE measures the 'return' (pre-tax profit) a company generates from capital employed in its business. In general, businesses with a higher ROCE are usually better quality. Ultimately, it is a useful but imperfect metric. Renowned investment researcher Michael Mauboussin has suggested that a high ROCE can indicate that 'one dollar invested in the company generates value of more than one dollar'.
How Do You Calculate Return On Capital Employed?
Analysts use this formula to calculate return on capital employed:
Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) ÷ (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)
Or for Finsbury Food Group:
0.094 = UK£17m ÷ (UK£235m - UK£60m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2019.)
Therefore, Finsbury Food Group has an ROCE of 9.4%.
Check out our latest analysis for Finsbury Food Group
Does Finsbury Food Group Have A Good ROCE?
ROCE can be useful when making comparisons, such as between similar companies. It appears that Finsbury Food Group's ROCE is fairly close to the Food industry average of 9.4%. Separate from Finsbury Food Group's performance relative to its industry, its ROCE in absolute terms looks satisfactory, and it may be worth researching in more depth.
Finsbury Food Group's current ROCE of 9.4% is lower than 3 years ago, when the company reported a 15% ROCE. This makes us wonder if the business is facing new challenges. You can click on the image below to see (in greater detail) how Finsbury Food Group's past growth compares to other companies.
When considering ROCE, bear in mind that it reflects the past and does not necessarily predict the future. Companies in cyclical industries can be difficult to understand using ROCE, as returns typically look high during boom times, and low during busts. ROCE is only a point-in-time measure. Future performance is what matters, and you can see analyst predictions in our free report on analyst forecasts for the company.
Do Finsbury Food Group's Current Liabilities Skew Its ROCE?
Current liabilities include invoices, such as supplier payments, short-term debt, or a tax bill, that need to be paid within 12 months. The ROCE equation subtracts current liabilities from capital employed, so a company with a lot of current liabilities appears to have less capital employed, and a higher ROCE than otherwise. To counter this, investors can check if a company has high current liabilities relative to total assets.
Finsbury Food Group has total liabilities of UK£60m and total assets of UK£235m. Therefore its current liabilities are equivalent to approximately 26% of its total assets. A fairly low level of current liabilities is not influencing the ROCE too much.
The Bottom Line On Finsbury Food Group's ROCE
With that in mind, Finsbury Food Group's ROCE appears pretty good. There might be better investments than Finsbury Food Group out there, but you will have to work hard to find them . These promising businesses with rapidly growing earnings might be right up your alley.
For those who like to find winning investments this free list of growing companies with recent insider purchasing, could be just the ticket.
If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. 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. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.
We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
