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. Basically this means that a company has profitable initiatives that it can continue to reinvest in, which is a trait of a compounding machine. And in light of that, the trends we're seeing at Medusa Mining's (ASX:MML) look very promising so lets take a look.
Understanding Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)
For those that aren't sure what ROCE is, it measures the amount of pre-tax profits a company can generate from the capital employed in its business. The formula for this calculation on Medusa Mining is:
Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) ÷ (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)
0.31 = US$63m ÷ (US$217m - US$17m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2021).
Therefore, Medusa Mining has an ROCE of 31%. In absolute terms that's a great return and it's even better than the Metals and Mining industry average of 9.4%.
View our latest analysis for Medusa Mining
While the past is not representative of the future, it can be helpful to know how a company has performed historically, which is why we have this chart above. If you're interested in investigating Medusa Mining's past further, check out this free graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow.
What The Trend Of ROCE Can Tell Us
We're pretty happy with how the ROCE has been trending at Medusa Mining. The figures show that over the last five years, returns on capital have grown by 80%. That's a very favorable trend because this means that the company is earning more per dollar of capital that's being employed. In regards to capital employed, Medusa Mining appears to been achieving more with less, since the business is using 24% less capital to run its operation. A business that's shrinking its asset base like this isn't usually typical of a soon to be multi-bagger company.
What We Can Learn From Medusa Mining's ROCE
In the end, Medusa Mining has proven it's capital allocation skills are good with those higher returns from less amount of capital. And with a respectable 57% awarded to those who held the stock over the last five years, you could argue that these developments are starting to get the attention they deserve. With that being said, we still think the promising fundamentals mean the company deserves some further due diligence.