The Returns At Netcall (LON:NET) Aren't Growing

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. Basically this means that a company has profitable initiatives that it can continue to reinvest in, which is a trait of a compounding machine. So, when we ran our eye over Netcall's (LON:NET) trend of ROCE, we liked what we saw.

Return On Capital Employed (ROCE): What Is It?

For those that aren't sure what ROCE is, it measures the amount of pre-tax profits a company can generate from the capital employed in its business. The formula for this calculation on Netcall is:

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

0.10 = UK£3.8m ÷ (UK£66m - UK£28m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2023).

So, Netcall has an ROCE of 10%. In absolute terms, that's a pretty normal return, and it's somewhat close to the Software industry average of 8.7%.

View our latest analysis for Netcall

Above you can see how the current ROCE for Netcall compares to its prior returns on capital, but there's only so much you can tell from the past. If you'd like, you can check out the forecasts from the analysts covering Netcall here for free.

The Trend Of ROCE

The trend of ROCE doesn't stand out much, but returns on a whole are decent. The company has consistently earned 10% for the last five years, and the capital employed within the business has risen 24% in that time. Since 10% 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.

Another point to note, we noticed the company has increased current liabilities over the last five years. This is intriguing because if current liabilities hadn't increased to 43% of total assets, this reported ROCE would probably be less than10% because total capital employed would be higher.The 10% ROCE could be even lower if current liabilities weren't 43% of total assets, because the the formula would show a larger base of total capital employed. So with current liabilities at such high levels, this effectively means the likes of suppliers or short-term creditors are funding a meaningful part of the business, which in some instances can bring some risks.

In Conclusion...

To sum it up, Netcall has simply been reinvesting capital steadily, at those decent rates of return. And given the stock has only risen 30% over the last five years, we'd suspect the market is beginning to recognize these trends. So to determine if Netcall is a multi-bagger going forward, we'd suggest digging deeper into the company's other fundamentals.

Netcall does have some risks though, and we've spotted 1 warning sign for Netcall that you might be interested in.

While Netcall isn't earning the highest return, check out this free list of companies that are earning high returns on equity with solid balance sheets.

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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.