Capital Investments At Bird Construction (TSE:BDT) Point To A Promising Future

There are a few key trends to look for if we want to identify the next multi-bagger. Typically, we'll want to notice a trend of growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and alongside that, an expanding base of capital employed. Ultimately, this demonstrates that it's a business that is reinvesting profits at increasing rates of return. So, when we ran our eye over Bird Construction's (TSE:BDT) trend of ROCE, we really liked what we saw.

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

If you haven't worked with ROCE before, it measures the 'return' (pre-tax profit) a company generates from capital employed in its business. The formula for this calculation on Bird Construction is:

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

0.21 = CA$86m ÷ (CA$1.1b - CA$721m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2022).

Therefore, Bird Construction has an ROCE of 21%. In absolute terms that's a great return and it's even better than the Construction industry average of 8.3%.

See our latest analysis for Bird Construction

In the above chart we have measured Bird Construction's prior ROCE against its prior performance, but the future is arguably more important. If you'd like to see what analysts are forecasting going forward, you should check out our free report for Bird Construction.

The Trend Of ROCE

It's hard not to be impressed by Bird Construction's returns on capital. The company has employed 117% more capital in the last five years, and the returns on that capital have remained stable at 21%. With returns that high, it's great that the business can continually reinvest its money at such appealing rates of return. If these trends can continue, it wouldn't surprise us if the company became a multi-bagger.

On a side note, Bird Construction has done well to reduce current liabilities to 63% of total assets over the last five years. Effectively suppliers now fund less of the business, which can lower some elements of risk. We'd like to see this trend continue though because as it stands today, thats still a pretty high level.

What We Can Learn From Bird Construction's ROCE

In the end, the company has proven it can reinvest it's capital at high rates of returns, which you'll remember is a trait of a multi-bagger. And given the stock has only risen 11% over the last five years, we'd suspect the market is beginning to recognize these trends. So because of the trends we're seeing, we'd recommend looking further into this stock to see if it has the makings of a multi-bagger.

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

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.

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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.