Summit Materials' (NYSE:SUM) Returns On Capital Not Reflecting Well On The Business

Did you know there are some financial metrics that can provide clues of a potential multi-bagger? 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. However, after briefly looking over the numbers, we don't think Summit Materials (NYSE:SUM) has the makings of a multi-bagger going forward, but let's have a look at why that may be.

Return On Capital Employed (ROCE): What is it?

For those that aren't sure what ROCE is, it measures the amount of pre-tax profits a company can generate from the capital employed in its business. Analysts use this formula to calculate it for Summit Materials:

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

0.055 = US$218m ÷ (US$4.3b - US$323m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to January 2021).

Thus, Summit Materials has an ROCE of 5.5%. Ultimately, that's a low return and it under-performs the Basic Materials industry average of 11%.

See our latest analysis for Summit Materials

roce

In the above chart we have measured Summit Materials' 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.

What The Trend Of ROCE Can Tell Us

When we looked at the ROCE trend at Summit Materials, we didn't gain much confidence. Over the last five years, returns on capital have decreased to 5.5% from 7.3% five years ago. Meanwhile, the business is utilizing more capital but this hasn't moved the needle much in terms of sales in the past 12 months, so this could reflect longer term investments. It's worth keeping an eye on the company's earnings from here on to see if these investments do end up contributing to the bottom line.

The Bottom Line On Summit Materials' ROCE

Bringing it all together, while we're somewhat encouraged by Summit Materials' reinvestment in its own business, we're aware that returns are shrinking. Since the stock has gained an impressive 44% over the last five years, investors must think there's better things to come. However, unless these underlying trends turn more positive, we wouldn't get our hopes up too high.

On a final note, we found 3 warning signs for Summit Materials (1 is a bit unpleasant) you should be aware of.

While Summit Materials 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.

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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