Yahoo Finance Shareholders Would Enjoy A Repeat Of Steppe Cement's (LON:STCM) Recent Growth In Returns
What are the early trends we should look for to identify a stock that could multiply in value over the long term? Ideally, a business will show two trends; firstly a growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and secondly, an increasing amount of capital employed. Ultimately, this demonstrates that it's a business that is reinvesting profits at increasing rates of return. Speaking of which, we noticed some great changes in Steppe Cement's (LON:STCM) returns on capital, so let's have a look.
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. The formula for this calculation on Steppe Cement is:
Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) ÷ (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)
0.30 = US$24m ÷ (US$94m - US$13m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2022).
Therefore, Steppe Cement has an ROCE of 30%. In absolute terms that's a great return and it's even better than the Basic Materials industry average of 11%.
View our latest analysis for Steppe Cement
While the past is not representative of the future, it can be helpful to know how a company has performed historically, which is why we have this chart above. If you're interested in investigating Steppe Cement's past further, check out this free graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow.
What The Trend Of ROCE Can Tell Us
Steppe Cement is showing promise given that its ROCE is trending up and to the right. The figures show that over the last five years, ROCE has grown 528% whilst employing roughly the same amount of capital. Basically the business is generating higher returns from the same amount of capital and that is proof that there are improvements in the company's efficiencies. The company is doing well in that sense, and it's worth investigating what the management team has planned for long term growth prospects.
One more thing to note, Steppe Cement has decreased current liabilities to 14% of total assets over this period, which effectively reduces the amount of funding from suppliers or short-term creditors. So shareholders would be pleased that the growth in returns has mostly come from underlying business performance.
The Bottom Line On Steppe Cement's ROCE
To bring it all together, Steppe Cement has done well to increase the returns it's generating from its capital employed. Since the stock has returned a staggering 196% to shareholders over the last five years, it looks like investors are recognizing these changes. Therefore, we think it would be worth your time to check if these trends are going to continue.
Like most companies, Steppe Cement does come with some risks, and we've found 2 warning signs that you should be aware of.
If you want to search for more stocks that have been earning high returns, check out this free list of stocks with solid balance sheets that are also earning high returns on equity.
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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