Should We Be Excited About The Trends Of Returns At Sensient Technologies (NYSE:SXT)?

What are the early trends we should look for to identify a stock that could multiply in value over the long term? 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. Having said that, from a first glance at Sensient Technologies (NYSE:SXT) we aren't jumping out of our chairs at how returns are trending, but let's have a deeper look.

What is Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)?

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. Analysts use this formula to calculate it for Sensient Technologies:

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

0.11 = US$172m ÷ (US$1.7b - US$216m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2020).

Thus, Sensient Technologies has an ROCE of 11%. On its own, that's a standard return, however it's much better than the 7.1% generated by the Chemicals industry.

View our latest analysis for Sensient Technologies

Above you can see how the current ROCE for Sensient Technologies compares to its prior returns on capital, but there's only so much you can tell from the past. If you'd like, you can check out the forecasts from the analysts covering Sensient Technologies here for free.

So How Is Sensient Technologies' ROCE Trending?

Things have been pretty stable at Sensient Technologies, with its capital employed and returns on that capital staying somewhat the same for the last five years. This tells us the company isn't reinvesting in itself, so it's plausible that it's past the growth phase. So unless we see a substantial change at Sensient Technologies in terms of ROCE and additional investments being made, we wouldn't hold our breath on it being a multi-bagger. This probably explains why Sensient Technologies is paying out 50% of its income to shareholders in the form of dividends. Given the business isn't reinvesting in itself, it makes sense to distribute a portion of earnings among shareholders.

The Bottom Line

We can conclude that in regards to Sensient Technologies' returns on capital employed and the trends, there isn't much change to report on. And investors may be recognizing these trends since the stock has only returned a total of 38% to shareholders over the last five years. Therefore, if you're looking for a multi-bagger, we'd propose looking at other options.

On a separate note, we've found 1 warning sign for Sensient Technologies you'll probably want to know about.

If you want to search for solid companies with great earnings, check out this free list of companies with good balance sheets and impressive returns on equity.

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