Yahoo Finance Big Lots (NYSE:BIG) May Have Issues Allocating Its Capital
If you're looking for a multi-bagger, there's a few things to keep an eye out for. Amongst other things, we'll want to see two things; firstly, a growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and secondly, an expansion in the company's amount of capital employed. Ultimately, this demonstrates that it's a business that is reinvesting profits at increasing rates of return. Although, when we looked at Big Lots (NYSE:BIG), it didn't seem to tick all of these boxes.
Understanding Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)
Just to clarify if you're unsure, ROCE is a metric for evaluating how much pre-tax income (in percentage terms) a company earns on the capital invested in its business. To calculate this metric for Big Lots, this is the formula:
Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) ÷ (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)
0.036 = US$110m ÷ (US$4.1b - US$1.0b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to April 2022).
Therefore, Big Lots has an ROCE of 3.6%. In absolute terms, that's a low return and it also under-performs the Multiline Retail industry average of 12%.
View our latest analysis for Big Lots
Above you can see how the current ROCE for Big Lots 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 Big Lots here for free.
The Trend Of ROCE
In terms of Big Lots' historical ROCE movements, the trend isn't fantastic. To be more specific, ROCE has fallen from 29% over the last five years. Meanwhile, the business is utilizing more capital but this hasn't moved the needle much in terms of sales in the past 12 months, so this could reflect longer term investments. It may take some time before the company starts to see any change in earnings from these investments.
On a side note, Big Lots has done well to pay down its current liabilities to 25% of total assets. That could partly explain why the ROCE has dropped. What's more, this can reduce some aspects of risk to the business because now the company's suppliers or short-term creditors are funding less of its operations. Since the business is basically funding more of its operations with it's own money, you could argue this has made the business less efficient at generating ROCE.
Our Take On Big Lots' ROCE
To conclude, we've found that Big Lots is reinvesting in the business, but returns have been falling. Since the stock has declined 46% over the last five years, investors may not be too optimistic on this trend improving either. Therefore based on the analysis done in this article, we don't think Big Lots has the makings of a multi-bagger.
If you'd like to know more about Big Lots, we've spotted 4 warning signs, and 1 of them is a bit unpleasant.
If you want to search for solid companies with great earnings, check out this free list of companies with good balance sheets and impressive 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.
