Capital Investment Trends At IT Link (EPA:ALITL) Look Strong

To find a multi-bagger stock, what are the underlying trends we should look for in a business? One common approach is to try and find a company with returns on capital employed (ROCE) that are increasing, in conjunction with a growing amount of capital employed. This shows us that it's a compounding machine, able to continually reinvest its earnings back into the business and generate higher returns. So, when we ran our eye over IT Link's (EPA:ALITL) trend of ROCE, we really liked what we saw.

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 IT Link, this is the formula:

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

0.21 = €5.0m ÷ (€44m - €20m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2021).

Thus, IT Link has an ROCE of 21%. In absolute terms that's a great return and it's even better than the Software industry average of 8.4%.

See our latest analysis for IT Link

In the above chart we have measured IT Link's prior ROCE against its prior performance, but the future is arguably more important. If you're interested, you can view the analysts predictions in our free report on analyst forecasts for the company.

What Does the ROCE Trend For IT Link Tell Us?

It's hard not to be impressed by IT Link's returns on capital. The company has consistently earned 21% for the last five years, and the capital employed within the business has risen 84% in that time. 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 thing to note, IT Link has a high ratio of current liabilities to total assets of 46%. This effectively means that suppliers (or short-term creditors) are funding a large portion of the business, so just be aware that this can introduce some elements of risk. While it's not necessarily a bad thing, it can be beneficial if this ratio is lower.

The Bottom Line

In short, we'd argue IT Link has the makings of a multi-bagger since its been able to compound its capital at very profitable rates of return. And the stock has followed suit returning a meaningful 99% to shareholders over the last five years. So while investors seem to be recognizing these promising trends, we still believe the stock deserves further research.

On a separate note, we've found 2 warning signs for IT Link you'll probably want to know about.

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.