Shareholders Would Enjoy A Repeat Of Ingles Markets' (NASDAQ:IMKT.A) Recent Growth In Returns

If we want to find a potential multi-bagger, often there are underlying trends that can provide clues. Typically, we'll want to notice a trend of growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and alongside that, an expanding base of capital employed. Ultimately, this demonstrates that it's a business that is reinvesting profits at increasing rates of return. Speaking of which, we noticed some great changes in Ingles Markets' (NASDAQ:IMKT.A) returns on capital, so let's have a look.

What is Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)?

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 Ingles Markets is:

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

0.21 = US$350m ÷ (US$2.2b - US$586m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2021).

Thus, Ingles Markets has an ROCE of 21%. In absolute terms that's a great return and it's even better than the Consumer Retailing industry average of 8.4%.

View our latest analysis for Ingles Markets

Historical performance is a great place to start when researching a stock so above you can see the gauge for Ingles Markets' ROCE against it's prior returns. If you're interested in investigating Ingles Markets' past further, check out this free graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow.

So How Is Ingles Markets' ROCE Trending?

Ingles Markets is showing promise given that its ROCE is trending up and to the right. Looking at the data, we can see that even though capital employed in the business has remained relatively flat, the ROCE generated has risen by 131% over the last five years. Basically the business is generating higher returns from the same amount of capital and that is proof that there are improvements in the company's efficiencies. The company is doing well in that sense, and it's worth investigating what the management team has planned for long term growth prospects.

On a side note, we noticed that the improvement in ROCE appears to be partly fueled by an increase in current liabilities. Effectively this means that suppliers or short-term creditors are now funding 26% of the business, which is more than it was five years ago. Keep an eye out for future increases because when the ratio of current liabilities to total assets gets particularly high, this can introduce some new risks for the business.

The Bottom Line On Ingles Markets' ROCE

In summary, we're delighted to see that Ingles Markets has been able to increase efficiencies and earn higher rates of return on the same amount of capital. And investors seem to expect more of this going forward, since the stock has rewarded shareholders with a 86% return over the last five years. In light of that, we think it's worth looking further into this stock because if Ingles Markets can keep these trends up, it could have a bright future ahead.

Like most companies, Ingles Markets does come with some risks, and we've found 1 warning sign that you should be aware of.

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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