To find a multi-bagger stock, what are the underlying trends we should look for in a business? Amongst other things, we'll want to see two things; firstly, a growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and secondly, an expansion in the company's amount of capital employed. Basically this means that a company has profitable initiatives that it can continue to reinvest in, which is a trait of a compounding machine. With that in mind, we've noticed some promising trends at IMAX China Holding (HKG:1970) so let's look a bit deeper.
If you haven't worked with ROCE before, it measures the 'return' (pre-tax profit) a company generates from capital employed in its business. The formula for this calculation on IMAX China Holding is:
Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) ÷ (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)
0.13 = US$42m ÷ (US$358m - US$35m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2025).
Therefore, IMAX China Holding has an ROCE of 13%. In absolute terms, that's a satisfactory return, but compared to the Entertainment industry average of 9.5% it's much better.
See our latest analysis for IMAX China Holding
Historical performance is a great place to start when researching a stock so above you can see the gauge for IMAX China Holding's ROCE against it's prior returns. If you want to delve into the historical earnings , check out these free graphs detailing revenue and cash flow performance of IMAX China Holding.
IMAX China Holding is displaying some positive trends. The numbers show that in the last five years, the returns generated on capital employed have grown considerably to 13%. The amount of capital employed has increased too, by 26%. 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.
In summary, it's great to see that IMAX China Holding 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. Astute investors may have an opportunity here because the stock has declined 28% in the last five years. That being the case, research into the company's current valuation metrics and future prospects seems fitting.
Before jumping to any conclusions though, we need to know what value we're getting for the current share price. That's where you can check out our FREE intrinsic value estimation for 1970 that compares the share price and estimated value.
If you want to search for solid companies with great earnings, check out this free list of companies with good balance sheets and impressive returns on equity.
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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.