Why We Like The Returns At bioMérieux (EPA:BIM)

If we want to find a potential multi-bagger, often there are underlying trends that can provide clues. 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. If you see this, it typically means it's a company with a great business model and plenty of profitable reinvestment opportunities. Speaking of which, we noticed some great changes in bioMérieux's (EPA:BIM) returns on capital, so let's have a look.

Understanding Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)

Just to clarify if you're unsure, ROCE is a metric for evaluating how much pre-tax income (in percentage terms) a company earns on the capital invested in its business. To calculate this metric for bioMérieux, this is the formula:

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

0.22 = €716m ÷ (€4.2b - €858m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2021).

Therefore, bioMérieux has an ROCE of 22%. On its own that's a fantastic return on capital, though it's the same as the Medical Equipment industry average of 22%.

See our latest analysis for bioMérieux

In the above chart we have measured bioMérieux'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 bioMérieux.

What The Trend Of ROCE Can Tell Us

Investors would be pleased with what's happening at bioMérieux. The numbers show that in the last five years, the returns generated on capital employed have grown considerably to 22%. Basically the business is earning more per dollar of capital invested and in addition to that, 56% more capital is being employed now too. This can indicate that there's plenty of opportunities to invest capital internally and at ever higher rates, a combination that's common among multi-baggers.

What We Can Learn From bioMérieux's ROCE

In summary, it's great to see that bioMérieux can compound returns by consistently reinvesting capital at increasing rates of return, because these are some of the key ingredients of those highly sought after multi-baggers. And a remarkable 165% total return over the last five years tells us that investors are expecting more good things to come in the future. So given the stock has proven it has promising trends, it's worth researching the company further to see if these trends are likely to persist.

If you'd like to know about the risks facing bioMérieux, we've discovered 1 warning sign that you should be aware of.

bioMérieux is not the only stock earning high returns. If you'd like to see more, check out our free list of companies earning high returns on equity with solid fundamentals.

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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.