Shareholders Would Enjoy A Repeat Of Adyen's (AMS:ADYEN) Recent Growth In Returns

What are the early trends we should look for to identify a stock that could multiply in value over the long term? Amongst other things, we'll want to see two things; firstly, a growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and secondly, an expansion in the company's 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. So when we looked at the ROCE trend of Adyen (AMS:ADYEN) we really liked what we saw.

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. Analysts use this formula to calculate it for Adyen:

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

0.29 = €478m ÷ (€4.6b - €2.9b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2021).

Therefore, Adyen has an ROCE of 29%. In absolute terms that's a great return and it's even better than the IT industry average of 19%.

Check out our latest analysis for Adyen

In the above chart we have measured Adyen's prior ROCE against its prior performance, but the future is arguably more important. If you'd like, you can check out the forecasts from the analysts covering Adyen here for free.

What Does the ROCE Trend For Adyen Tell Us?

Adyen is displaying some positive trends. The data shows that returns on capital have increased substantially over the last five years to 29%. The amount of capital employed has increased too, by 485%. This can indicate that there's plenty of opportunities to invest capital internally and at ever higher rates, a combination that's common among multi-baggers.

One more thing to note, Adyen has decreased current liabilities to 64% of total assets over this period, which effectively reduces the amount of funding from suppliers or short-term creditors. So this improvement in ROCE has come from the business' underlying economics, which is great to see. However, current liabilities are still at a pretty high level, so just be aware that this can bring with it some risks.

The Bottom Line On Adyen's ROCE

In summary, it's great to see that Adyen 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 a remarkable 499% total return over the last three years tells us that investors are expecting more good things to come in the future. In light of that, we think it's worth looking further into this stock because if Adyen can keep these trends up, it could have a bright future ahead.

Before jumping to any conclusions though, we need to know what value we're getting for the current share price. That's where you can check out our FREE intrinsic value estimation that compares the share price and estimated value.

If you want to search for more stocks that have been earning high returns, check out this free list of stocks with solid balance sheets that are also earning high returns on equity.

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.

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