What trends should we look for it we want to identify stocks that can multiply in value over the long term? Amongst other things, we'll want to see two things; firstly, a growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and secondly, an expansion in the company's amount of capital employed. Ultimately, this demonstrates that it's a business that is reinvesting profits at increasing rates of return. With that in mind, we've noticed some promising trends at Premier Investments (ASX:PMV) so let's look a bit deeper.

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. Analysts use this formula to calculate it for Premier Investments:

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

0.16 = AU$362m ÷ (AU$2.6b - AU$348m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to January 2024).

Thus, Premier Investments has an ROCE of 16%.  In absolute terms, that's a pretty normal return, and it's somewhat close to the Specialty Retail industry average of 17%.

See our latest analysis for Premier Investments  roce

Above you can see how the current ROCE for Premier Investments compares to its prior returns on capital, but there's only so much you can tell from the past. If you're interested, you can view the analysts predictions in our freeanalyst report for Premier Investments .

What Does the ROCE Trend For Premier Investments Tell Us?

We like the trends that we're seeing from Premier Investments. Over the last five years, returns on capital employed have risen substantially to 16%. The amount of capital employed has increased too, by 38%. This can indicate that there's plenty of opportunities to invest capital internally and at ever higher rates, a combination that's common among multi-baggers.

The Bottom Line On Premier Investments' ROCE

In summary, it's great to see that Premier Investments can compound returns by consistently reinvesting capital at increasing rates of return, because these are some of the key ingredients of those highly sought after multi-baggers. Since the stock has returned a staggering 193% to shareholders over the last five years, it looks like investors are recognizing these changes. In light of that, we think it's worth looking further into this stock because if Premier Investments can keep these trends up, it could have a bright future ahead.

Before jumping to any conclusions though, we need to know what value we're getting for the current share price. That's where you can check out our  FREE intrinsic value estimation for PMV  that compares the share price and estimated value.



If you want to search for solid companies with great earnings, check out this freelist of companies with good balance sheets and impressive returns on equity.

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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.