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, we've noticed some promising trends at Griffin Mining (LON:GFM) so let's look a bit deeper.

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

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 Griffin Mining, this is the formula:

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

0.06 = US$15m ÷ (US$295m - US$43m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2020).

So, Griffin Mining has an ROCE of 6.0%. Ultimately, that's a low return and it under-performs the Metals and Mining industry average of 14%.

Check out our latest analysis for Griffin Mining

In the above chart we have measured Griffin Mining's 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 Griffin Mining.

What The Trend Of ROCE Can Tell Us

While in absolute terms it isn't a high ROCE, it's promising to see that it has been moving in the right direction. The data shows that returns on capital have increased substantially over the last five years to 6.0%. Basically the business is earning more per dollar of capital invested and in addition to that, 66% more capital is being employed now too. 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.

On a related note, the company's ratio of current liabilities to total assets has decreased to 14%, which basically reduces it's funding from the likes of short-term creditors or suppliers. This tells us that Griffin Mining has grown its returns without a reliance on increasing their current liabilities, which we're very happy with.

The Key Takeaway

A company that is growing its returns on capital and can consistently reinvest in itself is a highly sought after trait, and that's what Griffin Mining has. Since the stock has returned a staggering 292% to shareholders over the last five years, it looks like investors are recognizing these changes. Therefore, we think it would be worth your time to check if these trends are going to continue.