Here's What To Make Of Balchem's (NASDAQ:BCPC) Decelerating Rates Of Return

Did you know there are some financial metrics that can provide clues of a potential 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. So, when we ran our eye over Balchem's (NASDAQ:BCPC) trend of ROCE, we liked what we saw.

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. Analysts use this formula to calculate it for Balchem:

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

0.11 = US$121m ÷ (US$1.2b - US$101m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2021).

Therefore, Balchem has an ROCE of 11%. In absolute terms, that's a pretty normal return, and it's somewhat close to the Chemicals industry average of 10%.

Check out our latest analysis for Balchem

In the above chart we have measured Balchem's prior ROCE against its prior performance, but the future is arguably more important. If you'd like, you can check out the forecasts from the analysts covering Balchem here for free.

So How Is Balchem's ROCE Trending?

While the returns on capital are good, they haven't moved much. The company has employed 22% more capital in the last five years, and the returns on that capital have remained stable at 11%. Since 11% is a moderate ROCE though, it's good to see a business can continue to reinvest at these decent rates of return. Over long periods of time, returns like these might not be too exciting, but with consistency they can pay off in terms of share price returns.

The Bottom Line On Balchem's ROCE

The main thing to remember is that Balchem has proven its ability to continually reinvest at respectable rates of return. And the stock has followed suit returning a meaningful 97% to shareholders over the last five years. So even though the stock might be more "expensive" than it was before, we think the strong fundamentals warrant this stock for further research.

Balchem does have some risks though, and we've spotted 1 warning sign for Balchem that you might be interested in.

While Balchem may not currently earn the highest returns, we've compiled a list of companies that currently earn more than 25% return on equity. Check out this free list here.

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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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