Yahoo Finance Wendy's (NASDAQ:WEN) Hasn't Managed To Accelerate Its Returns
If you're not sure where to start when looking for the next multi-bagger, there are a few key trends you should keep an eye out for. In a perfect world, we'd like to see a company investing more capital into its business and ideally the returns earned from that capital are also increasing. Put simply, these types of businesses are compounding machines, meaning they are continually reinvesting their earnings at ever-higher rates of return. However, after briefly looking over the numbers, we don't think Wendy's (NASDAQ:WEN) has the makings of a multi-bagger going forward, but let's have a look at why that may be.
Understanding Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)
For those that aren't sure what ROCE is, it measures the amount of pre-tax profits a company can generate from the capital employed in its business. The formula for this calculation on Wendy's is:
Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) ÷ (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)
0.069 = US$315m ÷ (US$5.0b - US$397m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to April 2021).
Thus, Wendy's has an ROCE of 6.9%. In absolute terms, that's a low return, but it's much better than the Hospitality industry average of 5.0%.
View our latest analysis for Wendy's
In the above chart we have measured Wendy'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 Wendy's here for free.
How Are Returns Trending?
Things have been pretty stable at Wendy's, with its capital employed and returns on that capital staying somewhat the same for the last five years. This tells us the company isn't reinvesting in itself, so it's plausible that it's past the growth phase. With that in mind, unless investment picks up again in the future, we wouldn't expect Wendy's to be a multi-bagger going forward. This probably explains why Wendy's is paying out 52% of its income to shareholders in the form of dividends. Unless businesses have highly compelling growth opportunities, they'll typically return some money to shareholders.
In Conclusion...
In a nutshell, Wendy's has been trudging along with the same returns from the same amount of capital over the last five years. Investors must think there's better things to come because the stock has knocked it out of the park, delivering a 159% gain to shareholders who have held over the last five years. But if the trajectory of these underlying trends continue, we think the likelihood of it being a multi-bagger from here isn't high.
One more thing: We've identified 3 warning signs with Wendy's (at least 1 which doesn't sit too well with us) , and understanding them would certainly be useful.
While Wendy's isn't earning the highest return, check out this free list of companies that are earning high returns on equity with solid balance sheets.
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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