INFICON Holding (VTX:IFCN) Is Aiming To Keep Up Its Impressive Returns

To find a multi-bagger stock, what are the underlying trends we should look for in a business? 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. Ultimately, this demonstrates that it's a business that is reinvesting profits at increasing rates of return. That's why when we briefly looked at INFICON Holding's (VTX:IFCN) ROCE trend, we were very happy with what we saw.

What Is Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)?

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. To calculate this metric for INFICON Holding, this is the formula:

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

0.39 = US$112m ÷ (US$429m - US$142m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2022).

Thus, INFICON Holding has an ROCE of 39%. In absolute terms that's a great return and it's even better than the Electronic industry average of 22%.

See our latest analysis for INFICON Holding

Above you can see how the current ROCE for INFICON Holding 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 free report on analyst forecasts for the company.

What The Trend Of ROCE Can Tell Us

We'd be pretty happy with returns on capital like INFICON Holding. The company has employed 35% more capital in the last five years, and the returns on that capital have remained stable at 39%. Returns like this are the envy of most businesses and given it has repeatedly reinvested at these rates, that's even better. You'll see this when looking at well operated businesses or favorable business models.

Another point to note, we noticed the company has increased current liabilities over the last five years. This is intriguing because if current liabilities hadn't increased to 33% of total assets, this reported ROCE would probably be less than39% because total capital employed would be higher.The 39% ROCE could be even lower if current liabilities weren't 33% of total assets, because the the formula would show a larger base of total capital employed. With that in mind, just be wary if this ratio increases in the future, because if it gets particularly high, this brings with it some new elements of risk.

In Conclusion...

In summary, we're delighted to see that INFICON Holding has been compounding returns by reinvesting at consistently high rates of return, as these are common traits of a multi-bagger. And the stock has followed suit returning a meaningful 86% to shareholders over the last five years. So while the positive underlying trends may be accounted for by investors, we still think this stock is worth looking into further.

One more thing, we've spotted 1 warning sign facing INFICON Holding that you might find interesting.

If you'd like to see other companies earning high returns, check out our free list of companies earning high returns with solid balance sheets here.

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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.