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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. 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 Kornit Digital (NASDAQ:KRNT) we aren't jumping out of our chairs at how returns are trending, but let's have a deeper look.
Return On Capital Employed (ROCE): What Is It?
If you haven't worked with ROCE before, it measures the 'return' (pre-tax profit) a company generates from capital employed in its business. To calculate this metric for Kornit Digital, this is the formula:
Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) ÷ (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)
0.0037 = US$3.5m ÷ (US$1.0b - US$77m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2022).
So, Kornit Digital has an ROCE of 0.4%. Ultimately, that's a low return and it under-performs the Machinery industry average of 9.5%.
See our latest analysis for Kornit Digital
Above you can see how the current ROCE for Kornit Digital 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 Kornit Digital's historical ROCE movements, the trend isn't fantastic. To be more specific, ROCE has fallen from 2.2% over the last five years. However, given capital employed and revenue have both increased it appears that the business is currently pursuing growth, at the consequence of short term returns. If these investments prove successful, this can bode very well for long term stock performance.
The Bottom Line
In summary, despite lower returns in the short term, we're encouraged to see that Kornit Digital is reinvesting for growth and has higher sales as a result. And the stock has followed suit returning a meaningful 76% to shareholders over the last five years. So while investors seem to be recognizing these promising trends, we would look further into this stock to make sure the other metrics justify the positive view.
On a separate note, we've found 4 warning signs for Kornit Digital you'll probably want to know about.
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.