Return Trends At Palfinger (VIE:PAL) Aren't Appealing

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. This shows us that it's a compounding machine, able to continually reinvest its earnings back into the business and generate higher returns. That's why when we briefly looked at Palfinger's (VIE:PAL) ROCE trend, we were pretty happy with what we saw.

Understanding Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)

If you haven't worked with ROCE before, it measures the 'return' (pre-tax profit) a company generates from capital employed in its business. To calculate this metric for Palfinger, this is the formula:

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

0.13 = €203m ÷ (€2.2b - €619m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2024).

So, Palfinger has an ROCE of 13%. On its own, that's a standard return, however it's much better than the 6.9% generated by the Machinery industry.

Check out our latest analysis for Palfinger

Above you can see how the current ROCE for Palfinger compares to its prior returns on capital, but there's only so much you can tell from the past. If you'd like to see what analysts are forecasting going forward, you should check out our free analyst report for Palfinger .

What Can We Tell From Palfinger's ROCE Trend?

While the current returns on capital are decent, they haven't changed much. The company has employed 37% more capital in the last five years, and the returns on that capital have remained stable at 13%. Since 13% is a moderate ROCE though, it's good to see a business can continue to reinvest at these decent rates of return. 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.

In Conclusion...

The main thing to remember is that Palfinger has proven its ability to continually reinvest at respectable rates of return. And given the stock has only risen 5.1% over the last five years, we'd suspect the market is beginning to recognize these trends. So to determine if Palfinger is a multi-bagger going forward, we'd suggest digging deeper into the company's other fundamentals.

If you want to continue researching Palfinger, you might be interested to know about the 2 warning signs that our analysis has discovered.

If you want to search for solid companies with great earnings, check out this free list 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.