Yahoo Finance Graco (NYSE:GGG) Knows How to Allocate Capital
To find a multi-bagger stock, what are the underlying trends we should look for in a business? 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. Ergo, when we looked at the ROCE trends at Graco (NYSE:GGG), we liked what we saw.
What is 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. Analysts use this formula to calculate it for Graco:
Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) ÷ (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)
0.24 = US$395m ÷ (US$2.0b - US$326m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2020).
Therefore, Graco has an ROCE of 24%. In absolute terms that's a great return and it's even better than the Machinery industry average of 10%.
See our latest analysis for Graco
In the above chart we have measured Graco's prior ROCE against its prior performance, but the future is arguably more important. If you'd like to see what analysts are forecasting going forward, you should check out our free report for Graco.
The Trend Of ROCE
In terms of Graco's history of ROCE, it's quite impressive. Over the past five years, ROCE has remained relatively flat at around 24% and the business has deployed 41% more capital into its operations. With returns that high, it's great that the business can continually reinvest its money at such appealing rates of return. If these trends can continue, it wouldn't surprise us if the company became a multi-bagger.
The Bottom Line On Graco's ROCE
In summary, we're delighted to see that Graco has been compounding returns by reinvesting at consistently high rates of return, as these are common traits of a multi-bagger. And long term investors would be thrilled with the 190% return they've received over the last five years. So while investors seem to be recognizing these promising trends, we still believe the stock deserves further research.
On a separate note, we've found 1 warning sign for Graco you'll probably want to know about.
If you'd like to see other companies earning high returns, check out our free list of companies earning high returns with solid balance sheets 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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