If you're looking for a multi-bagger, there's a few things to 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. 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, the ROCE of Uzin Utz (ETR:UZU) looks decent, right now, so lets see what the trend of returns can tell us.
What Is Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)?
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 Uzin Utz, this is the formula:
Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) ÷ (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)
0.11 = €35m ÷ (€413m - €103m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2022).
So, Uzin Utz has an ROCE of 11%. In absolute terms, that's a pretty normal return, and it's somewhat close to the Chemicals industry average of 10%.
Check out our latest analysis for Uzin Utz
In the above chart we have measured Uzin Utz's prior ROCE against its prior performance, but the future is arguably more important. If you're interested, you can view the analysts predictions in our free report on analyst forecasts for the company.
How Are Returns Trending?
While the current returns on capital are decent, they haven't changed much. Over the past five years, ROCE has remained relatively flat at around 11% and the business has deployed 54% more capital into its operations. Since 11% is a moderate ROCE though, it's good to see a business can continue to reinvest at these decent rates of return. Stable returns in this ballpark can be unexciting, but if they can be maintained over the long run, they often provide nice rewards to shareholders.
The Key Takeaway
The main thing to remember is that Uzin Utz has proven its ability to continually reinvest at respectable rates of return. However, over the last five years, the stock hasn't provided much growth to shareholders in the way of total returns. For that reason, savvy investors might want to look further into this company in case it's a prime investment.
On a final note, we've found 2 warning signs for Uzin Utz that we think you should be aware of.
For those who like to invest in solid companies, check out this free list of companies with solid balance sheets and high returns on equity.