Returns On Capital Are A Standout For Elisa Oyj (HEL:ELISA)

If you're not sure where to start when looking for the next multi-bagger, there are a few key trends you should keep an eye out for. Ideally, a business will show two trends; firstly a growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and secondly, an increasing amount of capital employed. Put simply, these types of businesses are compounding machines, meaning they are continually reinvesting their earnings at ever-higher rates of return. Speaking of which, we noticed some great changes in Elisa Oyj's (HEL:ELISA) returns on capital, so let's have a look.

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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. To calculate this metric for Elisa Oyj, this is the formula:

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

0.22 = €497m ÷ (€3.3b - €1.1b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2025).

Therefore, Elisa Oyj has an ROCE of 22%. In absolute terms that's a great return and it's even better than the Telecom industry average of 11%.

See our latest analysis for Elisa Oyj

Above you can see how the current ROCE for Elisa Oyj 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 analyst report for Elisa Oyj .

How Are Returns Trending?

Elisa Oyj's ROCE growth is quite impressive. More specifically, while the company has kept capital employed relatively flat over the last five years, the ROCE has climbed 20% in that same time. So our take on this is that the business has increased efficiencies to generate these higher returns, all the while not needing to make any additional investments. It's worth looking deeper into this though because while it's great that the business is more efficient, it might also mean that going forward the areas to invest internally for the organic growth are lacking.

The Bottom Line On Elisa Oyj's ROCE

In summary, we're delighted to see that Elisa Oyj has been able to increase efficiencies and earn higher rates of return on the same amount of capital. Since the stock has only returned 6.7% to shareholders over the last five years, the promising fundamentals may not be recognized yet by investors. So with that in mind, we think the stock deserves further research.

One final note, you should learn about the 2 warning signs we've spotted with Elisa Oyj (including 1 which is concerning) .

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.