Return Trends At IES Holdings (NASDAQ:IESC) Aren't Appealing

Finding a business that has the potential to grow substantially is not easy, but it is possible if we look at a few key financial metrics. 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. Basically this means that a company has profitable initiatives that it can continue to reinvest in, which is a trait of a compounding machine. With that in mind, the ROCE of IES Holdings (NASDAQ:IESC) looks decent, right now, so lets see what the trend of returns can tell us.

Return On Capital Employed (ROCE): What is it?

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 IES Holdings:

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

0.18 = US$77m ÷ (US$716m - US$290m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2021).

Thus, IES Holdings has an ROCE of 18%. On its own, that's a standard return, however it's much better than the 8.5% generated by the Construction industry.

View our latest analysis for IES Holdings

Historical performance is a great place to start when researching a stock so above you can see the gauge for IES Holdings' ROCE against it's prior returns. If you'd like to look at how IES Holdings has performed in the past in other metrics, you can view this free graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow.

The Trend Of ROCE

The trend of ROCE doesn't stand out much, but returns on a whole are decent. The company has employed 166% more capital in the last five years, and the returns on that capital have remained stable at 18%. 18% is a pretty standard return, and it provides some comfort knowing that IES Holdings has consistently earned this amount. 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.

Another thing to note, IES Holdings has a high ratio of current liabilities to total assets of 40%. This effectively means that suppliers (or short-term creditors) are funding a large portion of the business, so just be aware that this can introduce some elements of risk. Ideally we'd like to see this reduce as that would mean fewer obligations bearing risks.

In Conclusion...

To sum it up, IES Holdings has simply been reinvesting capital steadily, at those decent rates of return. And the stock has done incredibly well with a 147% 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.

If you'd like to know about the risks facing IES Holdings, we've discovered 1 warning sign that you should be aware of.

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

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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