Yahoo Finance Investors Shouldn't Overlook Cogstate's (ASX:CGS) Impressive Returns On Capital
If you're looking for a multi-bagger, there's a few things to keep an eye out for. Ideally, a business will show two trends; firstly a growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and secondly, an increasing amount of capital employed. This shows us that it's a compounding machine, able to continually reinvest its earnings back into the business and generate higher returns. And in light of that, the trends we're seeing at Cogstate's (ASX:CGS) look very promising so lets take a look.
Return On Capital Employed (ROCE): What is it?
If you haven't worked with ROCE before, it measures the 'return' (pre-tax profit) a company generates from capital employed in its business. To calculate this metric for Cogstate, this is the formula:
Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) ÷ (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)
0.28 = US$10m ÷ (US$52m - US$16m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2021).
Thus, Cogstate has an ROCE of 28%. In absolute terms that's a great return and it's even better than the Healthcare Services industry average of 10%.
View our latest analysis for Cogstate
In the above chart we have measured Cogstate's prior ROCE against its prior performance, but the future is arguably more important. If you'd like to see what analysts are forecasting going forward, you should check out our free report for Cogstate.
What Does the ROCE Trend For Cogstate Tell Us?
The trends we've noticed at Cogstate are quite reassuring. Over the last five years, returns on capital employed have risen substantially to 28%. The company is effectively making more money per dollar of capital used, and it's worth noting that the amount of capital has increased too, by 212%. This can indicate that there's plenty of opportunities to invest capital internally and at ever higher rates, a combination that's common among multi-baggers.
The Bottom Line On Cogstate's ROCE
To sum it up, Cogstate has proven it can reinvest in the business and generate higher returns on that capital employed, which is terrific. And investors seem to expect more of this going forward, since the stock has rewarded shareholders with a 98% return over the last five years. So given the stock has proven it has promising trends, it's worth researching the company further to see if these trends are likely to persist.
If you want to continue researching Cogstate, you might be interested to know about the 2 warning signs that our analysis has discovered.
Cogstate is not the only stock earning high returns. If you'd like to see more, check out our free list of companies earning high returns on equity with solid fundamentals.
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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. 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.
