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. One common approach is to try and find a company with returns on capital employed (ROCE) that are increasing, in conjunction with a growing amount of capital employed. Put simply, these types of businesses are compounding machines, meaning they are continually reinvesting their earnings at ever-higher rates of return. So on that note, Good Times Restaurants (NASDAQ:GTIM) looks quite promising in regards to its trends of return on capital.
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. To calculate this metric for Good Times Restaurants, this is the formula:
Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) ÷ (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)
0.023 = US$1.6m ÷ (US$86m - US$15m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to July 2025).
Thus, Good Times Restaurants has an ROCE of 2.3%. Ultimately, that's a low return and it under-performs the Hospitality industry average of 11%.
View our latest analysis for Good Times Restaurants
While the past is not representative of the future, it can be helpful to know how a company has performed historically, which is why we have this chart above. If you'd like to look at how Good Times Restaurants has performed in the past in other metrics, you can view this free graph of Good Times Restaurants' past earnings, revenue and cash flow.
Even though ROCE is still low in absolute terms, it's good to see it's heading in the right direction. The figures show that over the last five years, ROCE has grown 98% whilst employing roughly the same amount of capital. So our take on this is that the business has increased efficiencies to generate these higher returns, all the while not needing to make any additional investments. It's worth looking deeper into this though because while it's great that the business is more efficient, it might also mean that going forward the areas to invest internally for the organic growth are lacking.
In summary, we're delighted to see that Good Times Restaurants has been able to increase efficiencies and earn higher rates of return on the same amount of capital. Given the stock has declined 61% in the last five years, this could be a good investment if the valuation and other metrics are also appealing. That being the case, research into the company's current valuation metrics and future prospects seems fitting.
If you'd like to know about the risks facing Good Times Restaurants, we've discovered 2 warning signs that you should be aware of.
While Good Times Restaurants isn't earning the highest return, check out this free list of companies that are earning high returns on equity with solid balance sheets.
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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.