Should We Be Excited About The Trends Of Returns At CoreLogic (NYSE:CLGX)?

What trends should we look for it we want to identify stocks that can multiply in value over the long term? 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. Having said that, from a first glance at CoreLogic (NYSE:CLGX) we aren't jumping out of our chairs at how returns are trending, but let's have a deeper look.

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

For those that aren't sure what ROCE is, it measures the amount of pre-tax profits a company can generate from the capital employed in its business. The formula for this calculation on CoreLogic is:

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

0.077 = US$266m ÷ (US$4.1b - US$677m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2020).

Thus, CoreLogic has an ROCE of 7.7%. Ultimately, that's a low return and it under-performs the Professional Services industry average of 10%.

View our latest analysis for CoreLogic

In the above chart we have a measured CoreLogic's prior ROCE against its prior performance, but the future is arguably more important. If you'd like to see what analysts are forecasting going forward, you should check out our free report for CoreLogic.

What Does the ROCE Trend For CoreLogic Tell Us?

Things have been pretty stable at CoreLogic, with its capital employed and returns on that capital staying somewhat the same for the last five years. It's not uncommon to see this when looking at a mature and stable business that isn't re-investing its earnings because it has likely passed that phase of the business cycle. So don't be surprised if CoreLogic doesn't end up being a multi-bagger in a few years time.

The Key Takeaway

We can conclude that in regards to CoreLogic's returns on capital employed and the trends, there isn't much change to report on. Although the market must be expecting these trends to improve because the stock has gained 70% over the last five years. But if the trajectory of these underlying trends continue, we think the likelihood of it being a multi-bagger from here isn't high.

CoreLogic does have some risks though, and we've spotted 3 warning signs for CoreLogic that you might be interested in.

While CoreLogic 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. 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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