Shareholders Would Enjoy A Repeat Of Lakeland Industries' (NASDAQ:LAKE) Recent Growth In Returns

To find a multi-bagger stock, what are the underlying trends we should look for in a business? One common approach is to try and find a company with returns on capital employed (ROCE) that are increasing, in conjunction with a growing 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. So when we looked at the ROCE trend of Lakeland Industries (NASDAQ:LAKE) we really liked what we saw.

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. The formula for this calculation on Lakeland Industries is:

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

0.29 = US$37m ÷ (US$145m - US$16m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to April 2021).

Therefore, Lakeland Industries has an ROCE of 29%. In absolute terms that's a great return and it's even better than the Luxury industry average of 14%.

View our latest analysis for Lakeland Industries

In the above chart we have measured Lakeland Industries' prior ROCE against its prior performance, but the future is arguably more important. If you're interested, you can view the analysts predictions in our free report on analyst forecasts for the company.

So How Is Lakeland Industries' ROCE Trending?

The trends we've noticed at Lakeland Industries are quite reassuring. The numbers show that in the last five years, the returns generated on capital employed have grown considerably to 29%. Basically the business is earning more per dollar of capital invested and in addition to that, 87% more capital is being employed now too. The increasing returns on a growing amount of capital is common amongst multi-baggers and that's why we're impressed.

On a related note, the company's ratio of current liabilities to total assets has decreased to 11%, which basically reduces it's funding from the likes of short-term creditors or suppliers. This tells us that Lakeland Industries has grown its returns without a reliance on increasing their current liabilities, which we're very happy with.

In Conclusion...

To sum it up, Lakeland Industries has proven it can reinvest in the business and generate higher returns on that capital employed, which is terrific. And a remarkable 102% total return over the last five years tells us that investors are expecting more good things to come in the future. Therefore, we think it would be worth your time to check if these trends are going to continue.

If you want to know some of the risks facing Lakeland Industries we've found 2 warning signs (1 shouldn't be ignored!) that you should be aware of before investing here.

If you want to search for more stocks that have been earning high returns, check out this free list of stocks with solid balance sheets that are also earning high returns on equity.

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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.
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