Yahoo Finance Hailiang Education Group (NASDAQ:HLG) Is Achieving High Returns On Its Capital
Finding a business that has the potential to grow substantially is not easy, but it is possible if we look at a few key financial metrics. 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. Speaking of which, we noticed some great changes in Hailiang Education Group's (NASDAQ:HLG) returns on capital, so let's have a look.
Understanding Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)
If you haven't worked with ROCE before, it measures the 'return' (pre-tax profit) a company generates from capital employed in its business. Analysts use this formula to calculate it for Hailiang Education Group:
Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) ÷ (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)
0.25 = CN¥606m ÷ (CN¥3.4b - CN¥1.0b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2021).
So, Hailiang Education Group has an ROCE of 25%. That's a fantastic return and not only that, it outpaces the average of 8.2% earned by companies in a similar industry.
View our latest analysis for Hailiang Education Group
Historical performance is a great place to start when researching a stock so above you can see the gauge for Hailiang Education Group's ROCE against it's prior returns. If you'd like to look at how Hailiang Education Group has performed in the past in other metrics, you can view this free graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow.
What Can We Tell From Hailiang Education Group's ROCE Trend?
Investors would be pleased with what's happening at Hailiang Education Group. The data shows that returns on capital have increased substantially over the last five years to 25%. Basically the business is earning more per dollar of capital invested and in addition to that, 162% more capital is being employed now too. This can indicate that there's plenty of opportunities to invest capital internally and at ever higher rates, a combination that's common among multi-baggers.
On a side note, we noticed that the improvement in ROCE appears to be partly fueled by an increase in current liabilities. The current liabilities has increased to 30% of total assets, so the business is now more funded by the likes of its suppliers or short-term creditors. Keep an eye out for future increases because when the ratio of current liabilities to total assets gets particularly high, this can introduce some new risks for the business.
The Bottom Line
In summary, it's great to see that Hailiang Education Group can compound returns by consistently reinvesting capital at increasing rates of return, because these are some of the key ingredients of those highly sought after multi-baggers. And a remarkable 300% total return over the last five years tells us that investors are expecting more good things to come in the future. In light of that, we think it's worth looking further into this stock because if Hailiang Education Group can keep these trends up, it could have a bright future ahead.
Like most companies, Hailiang Education Group does come with some risks, and we've found 1 warning sign that you should be aware of.
If you want to search for more stocks that have been earning high returns, check out this free list of stocks with solid balance sheets that are also earning high returns on equity.
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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