A Look Into Computacenter's (LON:CCC) Impressive Returns On Capital

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. Ideally, a business will show two trends; firstly a growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and secondly, an increasing amount of capital employed. Ultimately, this demonstrates that it's a business that is reinvesting profits at increasing rates of return. Ergo, when we looked at the ROCE trends at Computacenter (LON:CCC), we liked what we saw.

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. The formula for this calculation on Computacenter is:

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

0.20 = UK£224m ÷ (UK£3.0b - UK£1.9b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2024).

So, Computacenter has an ROCE of 20%. In absolute terms that's a great return and it's even better than the IT industry average of 12%.

Check out our latest analysis for Computacenter

Above you can see how the current ROCE for Computacenter 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 Computacenter for free.

The Trend Of ROCE

We'd be pretty happy with returns on capital like Computacenter. The company has employed 69% more capital in the last five years, and the returns on that capital have remained stable at 20%. Now considering ROCE is an attractive 20%, this combination is actually pretty appealing because it means the business can consistently put money to work and generate these high returns. If Computacenter can keep this up, we'd be very optimistic about its future.

On a side note, Computacenter's current liabilities are still rather high at 62% of total assets. This effectively means that suppliers (or short-term creditors) are funding a large portion of the business, so just be aware that this can introduce some elements of risk. Ideally we'd like to see this reduce as that would mean fewer obligations bearing risks.

The Key Takeaway

Computacenter has demonstrated its proficiency by generating high returns on increasing amounts of capital employed, which we're thrilled about. However, over the last five years, the stock has only delivered a 33% return to shareholders who held over that period. That's why it could be worth your time looking into this stock further to discover if it has more traits of a multi-bagger.

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

If you'd like to see other companies earning high returns, check out our free list of companies earning high returns with solid balance sheets 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.