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If you're not sure where to start when looking for the next multi-bagger, there are a few key trends you should keep an eye out 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. If you see this, it typically means it's a company with a great business model and plenty of profitable reinvestment opportunities. In light of that, when we looked at Meridian Energy (NZSE:MEL) and its ROCE trend, we weren't exactly thrilled.
Return On Capital Employed (ROCE): What is it?
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. Analysts use this formula to calculate it for Meridian Energy:
Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) ÷ (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)
0.051 = NZ$446m ÷ (NZ$9.6b - NZ$901m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2021).
So, Meridian Energy has an ROCE of 5.1%. In absolute terms, that's a low return and it also under-performs the Renewable Energy industry average of 6.4%.
View our latest analysis for Meridian Energy
In the above chart we have measured Meridian Energy'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 Meridian Energy's ROCE Trend?
There hasn't been much to report for Meridian Energy's returns and its level of capital employed because both metrics have been steady for the past five years. It's not uncommon to see this when looking at a mature and stable business that isn't re-investing its earnings because it has likely passed that phase of the business cycle. With that in mind, unless investment picks up again in the future, we wouldn't expect Meridian Energy to be a multi-bagger going forward. On top of that you'll notice that Meridian Energy has been paying out a large portion (176%) of earnings in the form of dividends to shareholders. These mature businesses typically have reliable earnings and not many places to reinvest them, so the next best option is to put the earnings into shareholders pockets.
In Conclusion...
In summary, Meridian Energy isn't compounding its earnings but is generating stable returns on the same amount of capital employed. Yet to long term shareholders the stock has gifted them an incredible 116% return in the last five years, so the market appears to be rosy about its future. But if the trajectory of these underlying trends continue, we think the likelihood of it being a multi-bagger from here isn't high.