If you're looking for a multi-bagger, there's a few things to keep an eye out for. Ideally, a business will show two trends; firstly a growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and secondly, an increasing 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. With that in mind, the ROCE of Graco (NYSE:GGG) looks attractive 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. To calculate this metric for Graco, this is the formula:
Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) ÷ (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)
0.22 = US$576m ÷ (US$3.0b - US$389m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2025).
So, Graco has an ROCE of 22%. In absolute terms that's a great return and it's even better than the Machinery industry average of 12%.
View our latest analysis for Graco
Above you can see how the current ROCE for Graco compares to its prior returns on capital, but there's only so much you can tell from the past. If you'd like to see what analysts are forecasting going forward, you should check out our free analyst report for Graco .
What The Trend Of ROCE Can Tell Us
We'd be pretty happy with returns on capital like Graco. The company has employed 61% more capital in the last five years, and the returns on that capital have remained stable at 22%. With returns that high, it's great that the business can continually reinvest its money at such appealing rates of return. If these trends can continue, it wouldn't surprise us if the company became a multi-bagger.
In Conclusion...
In summary, we're delighted to see that Graco has been compounding returns by reinvesting at consistently high rates of return, as these are common traits of a multi-bagger. And since the stock has risen strongly over the last five years, it appears the market might expect this trend to continue. So while the positive underlying trends may be accounted for by investors, we still think this stock is worth looking into further.
On the other side of ROCE, we have to consider valuation. That's why we have a FREE intrinsic value estimation for GGG on our platform that is definitely worth checking out.
Graco 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.
Valuation is complex, but we're here to simplify it.
Discover if Graco might be undervalued or overvalued with our detailed analysis, featuring fair value estimates, potential risks, dividends, insider trades, and its financial condition.
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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.