We Like These Underlying Trends At Wm Morrison Supermarkets (LON:MRW)

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 on that note, Wm Morrison Supermarkets (LON:MRW) looks quite promising in regards to its trends of return on capital.

Return On Capital Employed (ROCE): What is it?

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 Wm Morrison Supermarkets is:

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

0.061 = UK£481m ÷ (UK£11b - UK£2.9b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to August 2020).

Thus, Wm Morrison Supermarkets has an ROCE of 6.1%. Ultimately, that's a low return and it under-performs the Consumer Retailing industry average of 11%.

See our latest analysis for Wm Morrison Supermarkets

In the above chart we have measured Wm Morrison Supermarkets' 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 The Trend Of ROCE Can Tell Us

We're glad to see that ROCE is heading in the right direction, even if it is still low at the moment. Over the last five years, returns on capital employed have risen substantially to 6.1%. Basically the business is earning more per dollar of capital invested and in addition to that, 21% 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 Wm Morrison Supermarkets' ROCE

All in all, it's terrific to see that Wm Morrison Supermarkets is reaping the rewards from prior investments and is growing its capital base. Investors may not be impressed by the favorable underlying trends yet because over the last five years the stock has only returned 27% to shareholders. Given that, we'd look further into this stock in case it has more traits that could make it multiply in the long term.

One more thing to note, we've identified 1 warning sign with Wm Morrison Supermarkets and understanding it should be part of your investment process.

While Wm Morrison Supermarkets 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. 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.
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