Yahoo Finance Premier Foods (LON:PFD) Is Experiencing Growth In Returns On Capital
Finding a business that has the potential to grow substantially is not easy, but it is possible if we look at a few key financial metrics. Ideally, a business will show two trends; firstly a growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and secondly, an increasing 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, we've noticed some promising trends at Premier Foods (LON:PFD) so let's look a bit deeper.
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 Premier Foods, this is the formula:
Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) ÷ (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)
0.06 = UK£120m ÷ (UK£2.3b - UK£264m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to April 2021).
Therefore, Premier Foods has an ROCE of 6.0%. In absolute terms, that's a low return and it also under-performs the Food industry average of 8.3%.
Check out our latest analysis for Premier Foods
Above you can see how the current ROCE for Premier Foods 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 Premier Foods here for free.
What Can We Tell From Premier Foods' ROCE Trend?
Premier Foods' ROCE growth is quite impressive. 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. Basically the business is generating higher returns from the same amount of capital and that is proof that there are improvements in the company's efficiencies. It's worth looking deeper into this though because while it's great that the business is more efficient, it might also mean that going forward the areas to invest internally for the organic growth are lacking.
The Bottom Line
In summary, we're delighted to see that Premier Foods has been able to increase efficiencies and earn higher rates of return on the same amount of capital. And a remarkable 115% total return over the last five years tells us that investors are expecting more good things to come in the future. In light of that, we think it's worth looking further into this stock because if Premier Foods can keep these trends up, it could have a bright future ahead.
Since virtually every company faces some risks, it's worth knowing what they are, and we've spotted 3 warning signs for Premier Foods (of which 1 makes us a bit uncomfortable!) that you should know about.
While Premier Foods may not currently earn the highest returns, we've compiled a list of companies that currently earn more than 25% return on equity. Check out this free list here.
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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