To find a multi-bagger stock, what are the underlying trends we should look for in a business? In a perfect world, we'd like to see a company investing more capital into its business and ideally the returns earned from that capital are also increasing. Ultimately, this demonstrates that it's a business that is reinvesting profits at increasing rates of return. Speaking of which, we noticed some great changes in Shell's (LON:SHEL) returns on capital, so let's have a 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 Shell is:

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

0.13 = US$44b ÷ (US$448b - US$119b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2022).

Thus, Shell has an ROCE of 13%. In absolute terms, that's a satisfactory return, but compared to the Oil and Gas industry average of 5.2% it's much better.

Check out our latest analysis for Shell

In the above chart we have measured Shell'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.

What Can We Tell From Shell's ROCE Trend?

Shell has not disappointed with their ROCE growth. Looking at the data, we can see that even though capital employed in the business has remained relatively flat, the ROCE generated has risen by 377% over the last five years. So it's likely that the business is now reaping the full benefits of its past investments, since the capital employed hasn't changed considerably. On that front, things are looking good so it's worth exploring what management has said about growth plans going forward.

Our Take On Shell's ROCE

To sum it up, Shell is collecting higher returns from the same amount of capital, and that's impressive. Considering the stock has delivered 39% to its stockholders over the last five years, it may be fair to think that investors aren't fully aware of the promising trends yet. So exploring more about this stock could uncover a good opportunity, if the valuation and other metrics stack up.

Shell does have some risks, we noticed 2 warning signs (and 1 which makes us a bit uncomfortable) we think you should know about.

While Shell isn't earning the highest return, check out this free list of companies that are earning high returns on equity with solid balance sheets.