ACC (NSE:ACC) Will Be Hoping To Turn Its Returns On Capital Around

If you're not sure where to start when looking for the next multi-bagger, there are a few key trends you should keep an eye out for. Ideally, a business will show two trends; firstly a growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and secondly, an increasing 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. In light of that, when we looked at ACC (NSE:ACC) and its ROCE trend, we weren't exactly thrilled.

Understanding 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. Analysts use this formula to calculate it for ACC:

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

0.06 = ₹9.0b ÷ (₹205b - ₹56b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2023).

Therefore, ACC has an ROCE of 6.0%. On its own, that's a low figure but it's around the 6.7% average generated by the Basic Materials industry.

See our latest analysis for ACC

Above you can see how the current ROCE for ACC 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.

What The Trend Of ROCE Can Tell Us

When we looked at the ROCE trend at ACC, we didn't gain much confidence. Around five years ago the returns on capital were 13%, but since then they've fallen to 6.0%. 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.

The Bottom Line On ACC's ROCE

Bringing it all together, while we're somewhat encouraged by ACC's reinvestment in its own business, we're aware that returns are shrinking. And investors may be recognizing these trends since the stock has only returned a total of 36% to shareholders over the last five years. Therefore, if you're looking for a multi-bagger, we'd propose looking at other options.

If you want to continue researching ACC, you might be interested to know about the 2 warning signs that our analysis has discovered.

While ACC 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.