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Finding a business that has the potential to grow substantially is not easy, but it is possible if we look at a few key financial metrics. Firstly, we'd want to identify a growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and then alongside that, an ever-increasing base of capital employed. Ultimately, this demonstrates that it's a business that is reinvesting profits at increasing rates of return. Having said that, from a first glance at Nufarm (ASX:NUF) we aren't jumping out of our chairs at how returns are trending, but let's have a deeper look.
Understanding 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. The formula for this calculation on Nufarm is:
Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) ÷ (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)
0.067 = AU$259m ÷ (AU$5.3b - AU$1.4b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2023).
Therefore, Nufarm has an ROCE of 6.7%. Ultimately, that's a low return and it under-performs the Chemicals industry average of 8.7%.
Check out our latest analysis for Nufarm
In the above chart we have measured Nufarm's prior ROCE against its prior performance, but the future is arguably more important. If you'd like, you can check out the forecasts from the analysts covering Nufarm here for free.
So How Is Nufarm's ROCE Trending?
In terms of Nufarm's historical ROCE movements, the trend isn't fantastic. Over the last five years, returns on capital have decreased to 6.7% from 9.1% five years ago. On the other hand, the company has been employing more capital without a corresponding improvement in sales in the last year, which could suggest these investments are longer term plays. It may take some time before the company starts to see any change in earnings from these investments.
The Key Takeaway
In summary, Nufarm is reinvesting funds back into the business for growth but unfortunately it looks like sales haven't increased much just yet. And in the last five years, the stock has given away 23% so the market doesn't look too hopeful on these trends strengthening any time soon. On the whole, we aren't too inspired by the underlying trends and we think there may be better chances of finding a multi-bagger elsewhere.
If you're still interested in Nufarm it's worth checking out our FREE intrinsic value approximation to see if it's trading at an attractive price in other respects.