Yahoo Finance There's Been No Shortage Of Growth Recently For SSE's (LON:SSE) Returns On Capital
There are a few key trends to look for if we want to identify the next multi-bagger. Firstly, we'd want to identify a growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and then alongside that, an ever-increasing base 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. So on that note, SSE (LON:SSE) looks quite promising in regards to its trends of return on capital.
What Is Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)?
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 SSE, this is the formula:
Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) ÷ (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)
0.16 = UK£3.3b ÷ (UK£26b - UK£4.7b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2022).
Thus, SSE has an ROCE of 16%. On its own, that's a standard return, however it's much better than the 8.2% generated by the Electric Utilities industry.
View our latest analysis for SSE
In the above chart we have measured SSE's prior ROCE against its prior performance, but the future is arguably more important. If you'd like, you can check out the forecasts from the analysts covering SSE here for free.
What Does the ROCE Trend For SSE Tell Us?
SSE is displaying some positive trends. The numbers show that in the last five years, the returns generated on capital employed have grown considerably to 16%. Basically the business is earning more per dollar of capital invested and in addition to that, 22% more capital is being employed now too. 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.
In Conclusion...
In summary, it's great to see that SSE can compound returns by consistently reinvesting capital at increasing rates of return, because these are some of the key ingredients of those highly sought after multi-baggers. Since the stock has returned a solid 69% to shareholders over the last five years, it's fair to say investors are beginning to recognize these changes. 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 know some of the risks facing SSE we've found 4 warning signs (2 shouldn't be ignored!) that you should be aware of before investing here.
While SSE isn't earning the highest return, check out this free list of companies that are earning high returns on equity with solid balance sheets.
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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.
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