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If we want to find a potential multi-bagger, often there are underlying trends that can provide clues. 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. If you see this, it typically means it's a company with a great business model and plenty of profitable reinvestment opportunities. In light of that, when we looked at Eversource Energy (NYSE:ES) and its ROCE trend, we weren't exactly thrilled.
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 Eversource Energy:
Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) ÷ (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)
0.05 = US$2.2b ÷ (US$49b - US$5.6b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2022).
So, Eversource Energy has an ROCE of 5.0%. Even though it's in line with the industry average of 4.8%, it's still a low return by itself.
See our latest analysis for Eversource Energy
Above you can see how the current ROCE for Eversource Energy compares to its prior returns on capital, but there's only so much you can tell from the past. If you're interested, you can view the analysts predictions in our free report on analyst forecasts for the company.
What The Trend Of ROCE Can Tell Us
In terms of Eversource Energy's historical ROCE movements, the trend isn't fantastic. Around five years ago the returns on capital were 6.4%, but since then they've fallen to 5.0%. 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.
The Bottom Line On Eversource Energy's ROCE
In summary, despite lower returns in the short term, we're encouraged to see that Eversource Energy is reinvesting for growth and has higher sales as a result. And the stock has followed suit returning a meaningful 62% to shareholders over the last five years. So while the underlying trends could already be accounted for by investors, we still think this stock is worth looking into further.
Since virtually every company faces some risks, it's worth knowing what they are, and we've spotted 3 warning signs for Eversource Energy (of which 1 makes us a bit uncomfortable!) that you should know about.