Yahoo Finance Return Trends At Teradyne (NASDAQ:TER) Aren't Appealing
To find a multi-bagger stock, what are the underlying trends we should look for in a business? Ideally, a business will show two trends; firstly a growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and secondly, an increasing amount 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. With that in mind, the ROCE of Teradyne (NASDAQ:TER) looks decent, right now, so lets see what the trend of returns can tell us.
Return On Capital Employed (ROCE): What Is It?
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 Teradyne, this is the formula:
Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) ÷ (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)
0.18 = US$517m ÷ (US$3.5b - US$660m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2023).
Thus, Teradyne has an ROCE of 18%. On its own, that's a standard return, however it's much better than the 9.7% generated by the Semiconductor industry.
View our latest analysis for Teradyne
Above you can see how the current ROCE for Teradyne 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 Teradyne for free.
What The Trend Of ROCE Can Tell Us
While the returns on capital are good, they haven't moved much. The company has employed 27% more capital in the last five years, and the returns on that capital have remained stable at 18%. 18% is a pretty standard return, and it provides some comfort knowing that Teradyne has consistently earned this amount. Stable returns in this ballpark can be unexciting, but if they can be maintained over the long run, they often provide nice rewards to shareholders.
The Bottom Line
To sum it up, Teradyne has simply been reinvesting capital steadily, at those decent rates of return. And the stock has done incredibly well with a 161% return over the last five years, so long term investors are no doubt ecstatic with that result. So while investors seem to be recognizing these promising trends, we still believe the stock deserves further research.
Teradyne could be trading at an attractive price in other respects, so you might find our free intrinsic value estimation for TER on our platform quite valuable.
While Teradyne may not currently earn the highest returns, we've compiled a list of companies that currently earn more than 25% return on equity. Check out this free list here.
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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.
