Here’s What’s Happening With Returns At Info Edge (India) (NSE:NAUKRI)

What trends should we look for it we want to identify stocks that can multiply in value over the long term? 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. Speaking of which, we noticed some great changes in Info Edge (India)'s (NSE:NAUKRI) returns on capital, so let's have a look.

What is 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 Info Edge (India) is:

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

0.066 = ₹3.0b ÷ (₹51b - ₹5.6b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2020).

Therefore, Info Edge (India) has an ROCE of 6.6%. Ultimately, that's a low return and it under-performs the Interactive Media and Services industry average of 11%.

Check out our latest analysis for Info Edge (India)

In the above chart we have measured Info Edge (India)'s prior ROCE against its prior performance, but the future is arguably more important. If you'd like to see what analysts are forecasting going forward, you should check out our free report for Info Edge (India).

What The Trend Of ROCE Can Tell Us

While in absolute terms it isn't a high ROCE, it's promising to see that it has been moving in the right direction. Over the last five years, returns on capital employed have risen substantially to 6.6%. Basically the business is earning more per dollar of capital invested and in addition to that, 167% more capital is being employed now too. So we're very much inspired by what we're seeing at Info Edge (India) thanks to its ability to profitably reinvest capital.

The Bottom Line

To sum it up, Info Edge (India) has proven it can reinvest in the business and generate higher returns on that capital employed, which is terrific. And a remarkable 364% total return over the last five years tells us that investors are expecting more good things to come in the future. With that being said, we still think the promising fundamentals mean the company deserves some further due diligence.

If you want to continue researching Info Edge (India), you might be interested to know about the 3 warning signs that our analysis has discovered.

If you want to search for solid companies with great earnings, check out this free list of companies with good balance sheets and impressive returns on equity.

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