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Returns on Capital Paint A Bright Future For C.H. Robinson Worldwide (NASDAQ:CHRW)

What are the early trends we should look for to identify a stock that could 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. 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 the ROCE trend of C.H. Robinson Worldwide (NASDAQ:CHRW) we really liked what we saw.

Return On Capital Employed (ROCE): What Is It?

For those who don't know, ROCE is a measure of a company's yearly pre-tax profit (its return), relative to the capital employed in the business. The formula for this calculation on C.H. Robinson Worldwide is:

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

0.50 = US$1.3b ÷ (US$6.0b - US$3.3b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2022).

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Thus, C.H. Robinson Worldwide has an ROCE of 50%. In absolute terms that's a great return and it's even better than the Logistics industry average of 12%.

Check out our latest analysis for C.H. Robinson Worldwide

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In the above chart we have measured C.H. Robinson Worldwide's prior ROCE against its prior performance, but the future is arguably more important. If you're interested, you can view the analysts predictions in our free report on analyst forecasts for the company.

So How Is C.H. Robinson Worldwide's ROCE Trending?

C.H. Robinson Worldwide's ROCE growth is quite impressive. More specifically, while the company has kept capital employed relatively flat over the last five years, the ROCE has climbed 44% in that same time. 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. On that front, things are looking good so it's worth exploring what management has said about growth plans going forward.

On a side note, C.H. Robinson Worldwide's current liabilities are still rather high at 56% of total assets. This can bring about some risks because the company is basically operating with a rather large reliance on its suppliers or other sorts of short-term creditors. Ideally we'd like to see this reduce as that would mean fewer obligations bearing risks.

In Conclusion...

To bring it all together, C.H. Robinson Worldwide has done well to increase the returns it's generating from its capital employed. Investors may not be impressed by the favorable underlying trends yet because over the last five years the stock has only returned 24% to shareholders. So with that in mind, we think the stock deserves further research.

C.H. Robinson Worldwide does come with some risks though, we found 3 warning signs in our investment analysis, and 1 of those makes us a bit uncomfortable...

High returns are a key ingredient to strong performance, so check out our free list ofstocks earning high returns on equity with solid balance sheets.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.

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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