Returns On Capital At Ashtead Group (LON:AHT) Have Stalled

If you're looking for a multi-bagger, there's a few things to keep an eye out for. 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. With that in mind, the ROCE of Ashtead Group (LON:AHT) looks decent, right now, so lets see what the trend of returns can tell us.

Understanding Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)

If you haven't worked with ROCE before, it measures the 'return' (pre-tax profit) a company generates from capital employed in its business. The formula for this calculation on Ashtead Group is:

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

0.12 = UK£1.0b ÷ (UK£9.2b - UK£741m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to January 2021).

Thus, Ashtead Group has an ROCE of 12%. That's a pretty standard return and it's in line with the industry average of 12%.

Check out our latest analysis for Ashtead Group

Above you can see how the current ROCE for Ashtead Group 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.

How Are Returns Trending?

The trend of ROCE doesn't stand out much, but returns on a whole are decent. The company has employed 96% more capital in the last five years, and the returns on that capital have remained stable at 12%. 12% is a pretty standard return, and it provides some comfort knowing that Ashtead Group has consistently earned this amount. Stable returns in this ballpark can be unexciting, but if they can be maintained over the long run, they often provide nice rewards to shareholders.

The Bottom Line

The main thing to remember is that Ashtead Group has proven its ability to continually reinvest at respectable rates of return. And long term investors would be thrilled with the 486% return they've received 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.

On a final note, we've found 1 warning sign for Ashtead Group that we think you should be aware of.

While Ashtead Group may not currently earn the highest returns, we've compiled a list of companies that currently earn more than 25% return on equity. Check out this free list here.

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