Yahoo Finance Why The 38% Return On Capital At JAKKS Pacific (NASDAQ:JAKK) Should Have Your Attention
If you're not sure where to start when looking for the next multi-bagger, there are a few key trends you should keep an eye out for. Ideally, a business will show two trends; firstly a growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and secondly, an increasing amount of capital employed. Ultimately, this demonstrates that it's a business that is reinvesting profits at increasing rates of return. With that in mind, the ROCE of JAKKS Pacific (NASDAQ:JAKK) looks great, so lets see what the trend can tell us.
Understanding Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)
Just to clarify if you're unsure, ROCE is a metric for evaluating how much pre-tax income (in percentage terms) a company earns on the capital invested in its business. Analysts use this formula to calculate it for JAKKS Pacific:
Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) ÷ (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)
0.38 = US$80m ÷ (US$477m - US$265m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2022).
Therefore, JAKKS Pacific has an ROCE of 38%. In absolute terms that's a great return and it's even better than the Leisure industry average of 21%.
Check out our latest analysis for JAKKS Pacific
In the above chart we have measured JAKKS Pacific's 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 JAKKS Pacific's ROCE Trending?
JAKKS Pacific has broken into the black (profitability) and we're sure it's a sight for sore eyes. While the business was unprofitable in the past, it's now turned things around and is earning 38% on its capital. 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.
For the record though, there was a noticeable increase in the company's current liabilities over the period, so we would attribute some of the ROCE growth to that. Essentially the business now has suppliers or short-term creditors funding about 56% of its operations, which isn't ideal. And with current liabilities at those levels, that's pretty high.
The Key Takeaway
To bring it all together, JAKKS Pacific has done well to increase the returns it's generating from its capital employed. Astute investors may have an opportunity here because the stock has declined 16% in the last five years. With that in mind, we believe the promising trends warrant this stock for further investigation.
JAKKS Pacific does have some risks, we noticed 2 warning signs (and 1 which is potentially serious) we think you should know about.
High returns are a key ingredient to strong performance, so check out our free list ofstocks earning high returns on equity with solid balance sheets.
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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