Returns On Capital At Altri SGPS (ELI:ALTR) Have Stalled

If we want to find a stock that could multiply over the long term, what are the underlying trends we should look for? 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. That's why when we briefly looked at Altri SGPS' (ELI:ALTR) ROCE trend, we were pretty happy with what we saw.

Understanding 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 Altri SGPS is:

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

0.10 = €164m ÷ (€2.0b - €414m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2021).

Therefore, Altri SGPS has an ROCE of 10%. By itself that's a normal return on capital and it's in line with the industry's average returns of 10.0%.

Check out our latest analysis for Altri SGPS

Above you can see how the current ROCE for Altri SGPS compares to its prior returns on capital, but there's only so much you can tell from the past. If you're interested, you can view the analysts predictions in our free report on analyst forecasts for the company.

What The Trend Of ROCE Can Tell Us

While the returns on capital are good, they haven't moved much. Over the past five years, ROCE has remained relatively flat at around 10% and the business has deployed 82% more capital into its operations. Since 10% is a moderate ROCE though, it's good to see a business can continue to reinvest at these decent rates of return. Stable returns in this ballpark can be unexciting, but if they can be maintained over the long run, they often provide nice rewards to shareholders.

In Conclusion...

In the end, Altri SGPS has proven its ability to adequately reinvest capital at good rates of return. And the stock has done incredibly well with a 105% return over the last five years, so long term investors are no doubt ecstatic with that result. So while the positive underlying trends may be accounted for by investors, we still think this stock is worth looking into further.

One more thing: We've identified 3 warning signs with Altri SGPS (at least 1 which is potentially serious) , and understanding these would certainly be useful.

While Altri SGPS isn't earning the highest return, check out this free list of companies that are earning high returns on equity with solid balance sheets.

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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.