Here's What's Concerning About Camping World Holdings' (NYSE:CWH) Returns On Capital

If we want to find a potential multi-bagger, often there are underlying trends that can provide clues. 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. If you see this, it typically means it's a company with a great business model and plenty of profitable reinvestment opportunities. Looking at Camping World Holdings (NYSE:CWH), it does have a high ROCE right now, but lets see how returns are trending.

Return On Capital Employed (ROCE): What is it?

For those who don't know, ROCE is a measure of a company's yearly pre-tax profit (its return), relative to the capital employed in the business. Analysts use this formula to calculate it for Camping World Holdings:

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

0.30 = US$820m ÷ (US$4.7b - US$2.0b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2022).

Thus, Camping World Holdings has an ROCE of 30%. That's a fantastic return and not only that, it outpaces the average of 18% earned by companies in a similar industry.

Check out our latest analysis for Camping World Holdings

roce

In the above chart we have measured Camping World Holdings' prior ROCE against its prior performance, but the future is arguably more important. If you'd like to see what analysts are forecasting going forward, you should check out our free report for Camping World Holdings.

So How Is Camping World Holdings' ROCE Trending?

In terms of Camping World Holdings' historical ROCE movements, the trend isn't fantastic. Historically returns on capital were even higher at 41%, but they have dropped over the last five years. Although, given both revenue and the amount of assets employed in the business have increased, it could suggest the company is investing in growth, and the extra capital has led to a short-term reduction in ROCE. If these investments prove successful, this can bode very well for long term stock performance.

On a related note, Camping World Holdings has decreased its current liabilities to 41% of total assets. So we could link some of this to the decrease in ROCE. Effectively this means their suppliers or short-term creditors are funding less of the business, which reduces some elements of risk. Since the business is basically funding more of its operations with it's own money, you could argue this has made the business less efficient at generating ROCE. Keep in mind 41% is still pretty high, so those risks are still somewhat prevalent.

The Key Takeaway

Even though returns on capital have fallen in the short term, we find it promising that revenue and capital employed have both increased for Camping World Holdings. These trends don't appear to have influenced returns though, because the total return from the stock has been mostly flat over the last five years. So we think it'd be worthwhile to look further into this stock given the trends look encouraging.

On a final note, we found 4 warning signs for Camping World Holdings (2 are concerning) you should be aware of.

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.

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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.