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The Return Trends At Euro Tech Holdings (NASDAQ:CLWT) Look Promising

If you're looking for a multi-bagger, there's a few things to keep an eye out 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. So when we looked at Euro Tech Holdings (NASDAQ:CLWT) and its trend of ROCE, we really liked what we saw.

What Is Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)?

For those that aren't sure what ROCE is, it measures the amount of pre-tax profits a company can generate from the capital employed in its business. To calculate this metric for Euro Tech Holdings, this is the formula:

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

0.053 = US$784k ÷ (US$21m - US$6.4m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2021).

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Therefore, Euro Tech Holdings has an ROCE of 5.3%. Ultimately, that's a low return and it under-performs the Trade Distributors industry average of 14%.

View our latest analysis for Euro Tech Holdings

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Historical performance is a great place to start when researching a stock so above you can see the gauge for Euro Tech Holdings' ROCE against it's prior returns. If you're interested in investigating Euro Tech Holdings' past further, check out this free graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow.

What The Trend Of ROCE Can Tell Us

We're delighted to see that Euro Tech Holdings is reaping rewards from its investments and has now broken into profitability. The company now earns 5.3% on its capital, because five years ago it was incurring losses. Interestingly, the capital employed by the business has remained relatively flat, so these higher returns are either from prior investments paying off or increased efficiencies. With no noticeable increase in capital employed, it's worth knowing what the company plans on doing going forward in regards to reinvesting and growing the business. After all, a company can only become a long term multi-bagger if it continually reinvests in itself at high rates of return.

Our Take On Euro Tech Holdings' ROCE

As discussed above, Euro Tech Holdings appears to be getting more proficient at generating returns since capital employed has remained flat but earnings (before interest and tax) are up. And investors seem to expect more of this going forward, since the stock has rewarded shareholders with a 97% return over the last five years. In light of that, we think it's worth looking further into this stock because if Euro Tech Holdings can keep these trends up, it could have a bright future ahead.

If you'd like to know more about Euro Tech Holdings, we've spotted 2 warning signs, and 1 of them is significant.

While Euro Tech Holdings may not currently earn the highest returns, we've compiled a list of companies that currently earn more than 25% return on equity. Check out this free list here.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.

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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