Will the Promising Trends At Kulicke and Soffa Industries (NASDAQ:KLIC) Continue?

What trends should we look for it we want to identify stocks that can multiply in value over the long term? Typically, we'll want to notice a trend of growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and alongside that, an expanding base of capital employed. Basically this means that a company has profitable initiatives that it can continue to reinvest in, which is a trait of a compounding machine. So when we looked at Kulicke and Soffa Industries (NASDAQ:KLIC) and its trend of ROCE, we really liked what we saw.

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 Kulicke and Soffa Industries is:

Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) ÷ (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)

0.099 = US$93m ÷ (US$1.1b - US$201m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to January 2021).

So, Kulicke and Soffa Industries has an ROCE of 9.9%. On its own that's a low return on capital but it's in line with the industry's average returns of 10%.

View our latest analysis for Kulicke and Soffa Industries

roce

Above you can see how the current ROCE for Kulicke and Soffa Industries 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 Kulicke and Soffa Industries here for free.

The Trend Of ROCE

Kulicke and Soffa Industries' ROCE growth is quite impressive. Looking at the data, we can see that even though capital employed in the business has remained relatively flat, the ROCE generated has risen by 174% over the last five years. So our take on this is that the business has increased efficiencies to generate these higher returns, all the while not needing to make any additional investments. It's worth looking deeper into this though because while it's great that the business is more efficient, it might also mean that going forward the areas to invest internally for the organic growth are lacking.

The Key Takeaway

To sum it up, Kulicke and Soffa Industries is collecting higher returns from the same amount of capital, and that's impressive. And with the stock having performed exceptionally well over the last five years, these patterns are being accounted for by investors. In light of that, we think it's worth looking further into this stock because if Kulicke and Soffa Industries can keep these trends up, it could have a bright future ahead.

One more thing, we've spotted 3 warning signs facing Kulicke and Soffa Industries that you might find interesting.

While Kulicke and Soffa Industries 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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