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If we want to find a stock that could multiply over the long term, what are the underlying trends we should look for? 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. With that in mind, the ROCE of Yancoal Australia (ASX:YAL) looks great, so lets see what the trend can tell us.
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. To calculate this metric for Yancoal Australia, this is the formula:
Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) ÷ (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)
0.26 = AU$2.6b ÷ (AU$11b - AU$1.0b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2023).
Thus, Yancoal Australia has an ROCE of 26%. That's a fantastic return and not only that, it outpaces the average of 6.9% earned by companies in a similar industry.
View our latest analysis for Yancoal Australia
Above you can see how the current ROCE for Yancoal Australia 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 analyst report for Yancoal Australia .
The Trend Of ROCE
Yancoal Australia 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 104% 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. The company is doing well in that sense, and it's worth investigating what the management team has planned for long term growth prospects.
The Key Takeaway
In summary, we're delighted to see that Yancoal Australia has been able to increase efficiencies and earn higher rates of return on the same amount of capital. Since the stock has returned a staggering 271% to shareholders over the last five years, it looks like investors are recognizing these changes. In light of that, we think it's worth looking further into this stock because if Yancoal Australia can keep these trends up, it could have a bright future ahead.