Ester Industries (NSE:ESTER) Is Investing Its Capital With Increasing Efficiency

If you're looking for a multi-bagger, there's a few things to keep an eye out for. Firstly, we'll want to see a proven return on capital employed (ROCE) that is increasing, and secondly, an expanding base of capital employed. If you see this, it typically means it's a company with a great business model and plenty of profitable reinvestment opportunities. Speaking of which, we noticed some great changes in Ester Industries' (NSE:ESTER) returns on capital, so let's have a look.

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. Analysts use this formula to calculate it for Ester Industries:

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

0.26 = ₹2.0b ÷ (₹9.6b - ₹2.0b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2021).

So, Ester Industries has an ROCE of 26%. In absolute terms that's a great return and it's even better than the Chemicals industry average of 18%.

View our latest analysis for Ester Industries

While the past is not representative of the future, it can be helpful to know how a company has performed historically, which is why we have this chart above. If you want to delve into the historical earnings, revenue and cash flow of Ester Industries, check out these free graphs here.

What The Trend Of ROCE Can Tell Us

Ester Industries is displaying some positive trends. The data shows that returns on capital have increased substantially over the last five years to 26%. Basically the business is earning more per dollar of capital invested and in addition to that, 84% more capital is being employed now too. The increasing returns on a growing amount of capital is common amongst multi-baggers and that's why we're impressed.

On a related note, the company's ratio of current liabilities to total assets has decreased to 21%, which basically reduces it's funding from the likes of short-term creditors or suppliers. So this improvement in ROCE has come from the business' underlying economics, which is great to see.

Our Take On Ester Industries' ROCE

In summary, it's great to see that Ester Industries can compound returns by consistently reinvesting capital at increasing rates of return, because these are some of the key ingredients of those highly sought after multi-baggers. And with the stock having performed exceptionally well over the last five years, these patterns are being accounted for by investors. With that being said, we still think the promising fundamentals mean the company deserves some further due diligence.

One more thing to note, we've identified 3 warning signs with Ester Industries and understanding these should be part of your investment process.

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.