Our Take On The Returns On Capital At Rentokil Initial (LON:RTO)

To find a multi-bagger stock, what are the underlying trends we should look for in a business? Ideally, a business will show two trends; firstly a growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and secondly, an increasing amount of capital employed. Put simply, these types of businesses are compounding machines, meaning they are continually reinvesting their earnings at ever-higher rates of return. Having said that, from a first glance at Rentokil Initial (LON:RTO) we aren't jumping out of our chairs at how returns are trending, but let's have a deeper look.

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. Analysts use this formula to calculate it for Rentokil Initial:

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

0.10 = UK£276m ÷ (UK£4.3b - UK£1.6b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2020).

Thus, Rentokil Initial has an ROCE of 10%. That's a pretty standard return and it's in line with the industry average of 10%.

See our latest analysis for Rentokil Initial

Above you can see how the current ROCE for Rentokil Initial 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.

The Trend Of ROCE

On the surface, the trend of ROCE at Rentokil Initial doesn't inspire confidence. Over the last five years, returns on capital have decreased to 10% from 22% five years ago. Meanwhile, the business is utilizing more capital but this hasn't moved the needle much in terms of sales in the past 12 months, so this could reflect longer term investments. It may take some time before the company starts to see any change in earnings from these investments.

In Conclusion...

In summary, Rentokil Initial is reinvesting funds back into the business for growth but unfortunately it looks like sales haven't increased much just yet. Yet to long term shareholders the stock has gifted them an incredible 273% return in the last five years, so the market appears to be rosy about its future. However, unless these underlying trends turn more positive, we wouldn't get our hopes up too high.

One more thing, we've spotted 2 warning signs facing Rentokil Initial that you might find interesting.

While Rentokil Initial 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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