Are Investors Overlooking Returns On Capital At Odlewnie Polskie (WSE:ODL)?

If we want to find a potential multi-bagger, often there are underlying trends that can provide clues. 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. That's why when we briefly looked at Odlewnie Polskie's (WSE:ODL) ROCE trend, we were very happy with 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. To calculate this metric for Odlewnie Polskie, this is the formula:

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

0.20 = zł19m ÷ (zł112m - zł20m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2020).

Therefore, Odlewnie Polskie has an ROCE of 20%. In absolute terms that's a great return and it's even better than the Metals and Mining industry average of 9.1%.

Check out our latest analysis for Odlewnie Polskie

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 Odlewnie Polskie, check out these free graphs here.

So How Is Odlewnie Polskie's ROCE Trending?

It's hard not to be impressed by Odlewnie Polskie's returns on capital. Over the past five years, ROCE has remained relatively flat at around 20% and the business has deployed 87% more capital into its operations. With returns that high, it's great that the business can continually reinvest its money at such appealing rates of return. You'll see this when looking at well operated businesses or favorable business models.

One more thing to note, even though ROCE has remained relatively flat over the last five years, the reduction in current liabilities to 18% of total assets, is good to see from a business owner's perspective. This can eliminate some of the risks inherent in the operations because the business has less outstanding obligations to their suppliers and or short-term creditors than they did previously.

The Key Takeaway

Odlewnie Polskie has demonstrated its proficiency by generating high returns on increasing amounts of capital employed, which we're thrilled about. On top of that, the stock has rewarded shareholders with a remarkable 139% return to those who've held over the last five years. So while investors seem to be recognizing these promising trends, we still believe the stock deserves further research.

On a final note, we've found 3 warning signs for Odlewnie Polskie that we think you should be aware of.

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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