Yahoo Finance There's Been No Shortage Of Growth Recently For ALS' (ASX:ALQ) Returns On Capital
To find a multi-bagger stock, what are the underlying trends we should look for in a business? Ideally, a business will show two trends; firstly a growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and secondly, an increasing amount of capital employed. Ultimately, this demonstrates that it's a business that is reinvesting profits at increasing rates of return. With that in mind, we've noticed some promising trends at ALS (ASX:ALQ) so let's look a bit deeper.
Return On Capital Employed (ROCE): What is it?
For those who don't know, ROCE is a measure of a company's yearly pre-tax profit (its return), relative to the capital employed in the business. Analysts use this formula to calculate it for ALS:
Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) ÷ (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)
0.18 = AU$349m ÷ (AU$2.6b - AU$727m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2021).
Thus, ALS has an ROCE of 18%. In absolute terms, that's a pretty normal return, and it's somewhat close to the Professional Services industry average of 17%.
Check out our latest analysis for ALS
Above you can see how the current ROCE for ALS compares to its prior returns on capital, but there's only so much you can tell from the past. If you'd like to see what analysts are forecasting going forward, you should check out our free report for ALS.
What Can We Tell From ALS' ROCE Trend?
ALS' ROCE growth is quite impressive. The figures show that over the last five years, ROCE has grown 119% whilst employing roughly the same amount of capital. So it's likely that the business is now reaping the full benefits of its past investments, since the capital employed hasn't changed considerably. On that front, things are looking good so it's worth exploring what management has said about growth plans going forward.
For the record though, there was a noticeable increase in the company's current liabilities over the period, so we would attribute some of the ROCE growth to that. Essentially the business now has suppliers or short-term creditors funding about 28% of its operations, which isn't ideal. Keep an eye out for future increases because when the ratio of current liabilities to total assets gets particularly high, this can introduce some new risks for the business.
What We Can Learn From ALS' ROCE
To sum it up, ALS is collecting higher returns from the same amount of capital, and that's impressive. And a remarkable 130% 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 ALS can keep these trends up, it could have a bright future ahead.
One more thing, we've spotted 2 warning signs facing ALS that you might find interesting.
For those who like to invest in solid companies, check out this free list of companies with solid balance sheets and high returns on equity.
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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.
