There's Been No Shortage Of Growth Recently For Finatis Société Anonyme's (EPA:FNTS) Returns On Capital

To find a multi-bagger stock, what are the underlying trends we should look for in a business? Typically, we'll want to notice a trend of growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and alongside that, an expanding base of capital employed. Basically this means that a company has profitable initiatives that it can continue to reinvest in, which is a trait of a compounding machine. So when we looked at Finatis Société Anonyme (EPA:FNTS) and its trend of ROCE, we really liked 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. Analysts use this formula to calculate it for Finatis Société Anonyme:

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

0.065 = €1.4b ÷ (€34b - €13b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2022).

Thus, Finatis Société Anonyme has an ROCE of 6.5%. Ultimately, that's a low return and it under-performs the Consumer Retailing industry average of 11%.

See our latest analysis for Finatis Société Anonyme

While the past is not representative of the future, it can be helpful to know how a company has performed historically, which is why we have this chart above. If you're interested in investigating Finatis Société Anonyme's past further, check out this free graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow.

The Trend Of ROCE

Finatis Société Anonyme's ROCE growth is quite impressive. The figures show that over the last five years, ROCE has grown 40% whilst employing roughly the same amount of capital. 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. On that front, things are looking good so it's worth exploring what management has said about growth plans going forward.

In Conclusion...

To sum it up, Finatis Société Anonyme is collecting higher returns from the same amount of capital, and that's impressive. And since the stock has dived 80% over the last five years, there may be other factors affecting the company's prospects. Regardless, we think the underlying fundamentals warrant this stock for further investigation.

On a final note, we found 4 warning signs for Finatis Société Anonyme (2 shouldn't be ignored) you should be aware of.

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.