Here's What To Make Of AerCap Holdings' (NYSE:AER) Returns On Capital

What trends should we look for it we want to identify stocks that can multiply in value over the long term? Ideally, a business will show two trends; firstly a growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and secondly, an increasing 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. However, after investigating AerCap Holdings (NYSE:AER), we don't think it's current trends fit the mold of a multi-bagger.

What is 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. Analysts use this formula to calculate it for AerCap Holdings:

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

0.059 = US$2.5b ÷ (US$44b - US$2.5b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2020).

Therefore, AerCap Holdings has an ROCE of 5.9%. Ultimately, that's a low return and it under-performs the Trade Distributors industry average of 8.1%.

View our latest analysis for AerCap Holdings

roce

Above you can see how the current ROCE for AerCap Holdings compares to its prior returns on capital, but there's only so much you can tell from the past. If you'd like, you can check out the forecasts from the analysts covering AerCap Holdings here for free.

What The Trend Of ROCE Can Tell Us

Over the past five years, AerCap Holdings' ROCE and capital employed have both remained mostly flat. 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. So unless we see a substantial change at AerCap Holdings in terms of ROCE and additional investments being made, we wouldn't hold our breath on it being a multi-bagger.

What We Can Learn From AerCap Holdings' ROCE

We can conclude that in regards to AerCap Holdings' returns on capital employed and the trends, there isn't much change to report on. And investors may be recognizing these trends since the stock has only returned a total of 31% to shareholders over the last five years. Therefore, if you're looking for a multi-bagger, we'd propose looking at other options.

Since virtually every company faces some risks, it's worth knowing what they are, and we've spotted 2 warning signs for AerCap Holdings (of which 1 is a bit concerning!) that you should know about.

If you want to search for solid companies with great earnings, check out this free list of companies with good balance sheets and impressive returns on equity.

This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.

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