Returns On Capital At ACEA (BIT:ACE) Paint An Interesting Picture

If you're looking for a multi-bagger, there's a few things to keep an eye out for. In a perfect world, we'd like to see a company investing more capital into its business and ideally the returns earned from that capital are also increasing. Put simply, these types of businesses are compounding machines, meaning they are continually reinvesting their earnings at ever-higher rates of return. Having said that, from a first glance at ACEA (BIT:ACE) we aren't jumping out of our chairs at how returns are trending, but let's have a deeper look.

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. Analysts use this formula to calculate it for ACEA:

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

0.062 = €441m ÷ (€9.4b - €2.3b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2020).

Thus, ACEA has an ROCE of 6.2%. In absolute terms, that's a low return, but it's much better than the Integrated Utilities industry average of 4.8%.

View our latest analysis for ACEA

In the above chart we have measured ACEA's prior ROCE against its prior performance, but the future is arguably more important. If you're interested, you can view the analysts predictions in our free report on analyst forecasts for the company.

So How Is ACEA's ROCE Trending?

There are better returns on capital out there than what we're seeing at ACEA. Over the past five years, ROCE has remained relatively flat at around 6.2% and the business has deployed 47% more capital into its operations. Given the company has increased the amount of capital employed, it appears the investments that have been made simply don't provide a high return on capital.

The Key Takeaway

Long story short, while ACEA has been reinvesting its capital, the returns that it's generating haven't increased. Since the stock has gained an impressive 49% over the last five years, investors must think there's better things to come. Ultimately, if the underlying trends persist, we wouldn't hold our breath on it being a multi-bagger going forward.

Since virtually every company faces some risks, it's worth knowing what they are, and we've spotted 3 warning signs for ACEA (of which 1 makes us a bit uncomfortable!) that you should know about.

For those who like to invest in solid companies, check out this free list of companies with solid balance sheets and high returns on equity.

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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. 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.
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