Yahoo Finance National Presto Industries (NYSE:NPK) Hasn't Managed To Accelerate Its Returns
What trends should we look for it we want to identify stocks that can multiply in value over the long term? 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. Ultimately, this demonstrates that it's a business that is reinvesting profits at increasing rates of return. Having said that, from a first glance at National Presto Industries (NYSE:NPK) we aren't jumping out of our chairs at how returns are trending, but let's have a deeper look.
What is 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. The formula for this calculation on National Presto Industries is:
Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) ÷ (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)
0.15 = US$54m ÷ (US$407m - US$46m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to July 2021).
So, National Presto Industries has an ROCE of 15%. In absolute terms, that's a satisfactory return, but compared to the Aerospace & Defense industry average of 8.9% it's much better.
See our latest analysis for National Presto Industries
Historical performance is a great place to start when researching a stock so above you can see the gauge for National Presto Industries' ROCE against it's prior returns. If you'd like to look at how National Presto Industries has performed in the past in other metrics, you can view this free graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow.
What The Trend Of ROCE Can Tell Us
Things have been pretty stable at National Presto Industries, 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. So unless we see a substantial change at National Presto Industries in terms of ROCE and additional investments being made, we wouldn't hold our breath on it being a multi-bagger.
Our Take On National Presto Industries' ROCE
We can conclude that in regards to National Presto Industries' returns on capital employed and the trends, there isn't much change to report on. And with the stock having returned a mere 28% in the last five years to shareholders, you could argue that they're aware of these lackluster trends. So if you're looking for a multi-bagger, the underlying trends indicate you may have better chances elsewhere.
On a separate note, we've found 1 warning sign for National Presto Industries you'll probably want to know about.
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.
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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