Shareholders Would Enjoy A Repeat Of A. O. Smith's (NYSE:AOS) Recent Growth In Returns

There are a few key trends to look for if we want to identify the next multi-bagger. 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. Basically this means that a company has profitable initiatives that it can continue to reinvest in, which is a trait of a compounding machine. And in light of that, the trends we're seeing at A. O. Smith's (NYSE:AOS) look very promising so lets take a look.

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Return On Capital Employed (ROCE): What Is It?

Just to clarify if you're unsure, ROCE is a metric for evaluating how much pre-tax income (in percentage terms) a company earns on the capital invested in its business. The formula for this calculation on A. O. Smith is:

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

0.29 = US$689m ÷ (US$3.3b - US$882m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2025).

So, A. O. Smith has an ROCE of 29%. That's a fantastic return and not only that, it outpaces the average of 14% earned by companies in a similar industry.

Check out our latest analysis for A. O. Smith

Above you can see how the current ROCE for A. O. Smith compares to its prior returns on capital, but there's only so much you can tell from the past. If you'd like, you can check out the forecasts from the analysts covering A. O. Smith for free.

The Trend Of ROCE

A. O. Smith's ROCE growth is quite impressive. More specifically, while the company has kept capital employed relatively flat over the last five years, the ROCE has climbed 57% in that same time. So our take on this is that the business has increased efficiencies to generate these higher returns, all the while not needing to make any additional investments. It's worth looking deeper into this though because while it's great that the business is more efficient, it might also mean that going forward the areas to invest internally for the organic growth are lacking.

The Bottom Line On A. O. Smith's ROCE

As discussed above, A. O. Smith appears to be getting more proficient at generating returns since capital employed has remained flat but earnings (before interest and tax) are up. And investors seem to expect more of this going forward, since the stock has rewarded shareholders with a 50% return over the last five years. So given the stock has proven it has promising trends, it's worth researching the company further to see if these trends are likely to persist.

While A. O. Smith looks impressive, no company is worth an infinite price. The intrinsic value infographic for AOS helps visualize whether it is currently trading for a fair price.

A. O. Smith is not the only stock earning high returns. If you'd like to see more, check out our free list of companies earning high returns on equity with solid fundamentals.

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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.