Slowing Rates Of Return At Ashtead Group (LON:AHT) Leave Little Room For Excitement

Finding a business that has the potential to grow substantially is not easy, but it is possible if we look at a few key financial metrics. 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 Ashtead Group's (LON:AHT) trend of ROCE, we liked what we saw.

Understanding Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)

For those who don't know, ROCE is a measure of a company's yearly pre-tax profit (its return), relative to the capital employed in the business. The formula for this calculation on Ashtead Group is:

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

0.14 = US$2.0b ÷ (US$15b - US$1.5b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to April 2022).

Therefore, Ashtead Group has an ROCE of 14%. By itself that's a normal return on capital and it's in line with the industry's average returns of 14%.

View our latest analysis for Ashtead Group

In the above chart we have measured Ashtead Group'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.

How Are Returns Trending?

While the current returns on capital are decent, they haven't changed much. The company has consistently earned 14% for the last five years, and the capital employed within the business has risen 92% in that time. Since 14% is a moderate ROCE though, it's good to see a business can continue to reinvest at these decent rates of return. 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.

What We Can Learn From Ashtead Group's ROCE

The main thing to remember is that Ashtead Group has proven its ability to continually reinvest at respectable rates of return. And the stock has done incredibly well with a 175% return over the last five years, so long term investors are no doubt ecstatic with that result. So even though the stock might be more "expensive" than it was before, we think the strong fundamentals warrant this stock for further research.

If you want to continue researching Ashtead Group, you might be interested to know about the 1 warning sign that our analysis has discovered.

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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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.