Returns On Capital Are Showing Encouraging Signs At British American Tobacco (LON:BATS)

There are a few key trends to look for if we want to identify the next multi-bagger. 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. So when we looked at British American Tobacco (LON:BATS) and its trend of ROCE, we really liked what we saw.

What Is 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. The formula for this calculation on British American Tobacco is:

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

0.086 = UK£12b ÷ (UK£154b - UK£18b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2022).

Thus, British American Tobacco has an ROCE of 8.6%. In absolute terms, that's a low return and it also under-performs the Tobacco industry average of 15%.

See our latest analysis for British American Tobacco

In the above chart we have measured British American Tobacco'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 The Trend Of ROCE Can Tell Us

British American Tobacco is showing promise given that its ROCE is trending up and to the right. More specifically, while the company has kept capital employed relatively flat over the last five years, the ROCE has climbed 50% in that same time. Basically the business is generating higher returns from the same amount of capital and that is proof that there are improvements in the company's efficiencies. On that front, things are looking good so it's worth exploring what management has said about growth plans going forward.

What We Can Learn From British American Tobacco's ROCE

To bring it all together, British American Tobacco has done well to increase the returns it's generating from its capital employed. And given the stock has remained rather flat over the last five years, there might be an opportunity here if other metrics are strong. With that in mind, we believe the promising trends warrant this stock for further investigation.

If you'd like to know about the risks facing British American Tobacco, we've discovered 2 warning signs that you should be aware of.

For those who like to invest in solid companies, check out this free list of companies with solid balance sheets and high returns on equity.

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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.