Under The Bonnet, DICK'S Sporting Goods' (NYSE:DKS) Returns Look Impressive

Did you know there are some financial metrics that can provide clues of a potential multi-bagger? Ideally, a business will show two trends; firstly a growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and secondly, an increasing amount of capital employed. This shows us that it's a compounding machine, able to continually reinvest its earnings back into the business and generate higher returns. And in light of that, the trends we're seeing at DICK'S Sporting Goods' (NYSE:DKS) look very promising so lets take a 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 DICK'S Sporting Goods is:

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

0.32 = US$2.0b ÷ (US$9.0b - US$2.7b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to April 2022).

Therefore, DICK'S Sporting Goods has an ROCE of 32%. In absolute terms that's a great return and it's even better than the Specialty Retail industry average of 18%.

See our latest analysis for DICK'S Sporting Goods

Above you can see how the current ROCE for DICK'S Sporting Goods compares to its prior returns on capital, but there's only so much you can tell from the past. If you're interested, you can view the analysts predictions in our free report on analyst forecasts for the company.

What The Trend Of ROCE Can Tell Us

We like the trends that we're seeing from DICK'S Sporting Goods. Over the last five years, returns on capital employed have risen substantially to 32%. Basically the business is earning more per dollar of capital invested and in addition to that, 138% more capital is being employed now too. This can indicate that there's plenty of opportunities to invest capital internally and at ever higher rates, a combination that's common among multi-baggers.

The Bottom Line On DICK'S Sporting Goods' ROCE

In summary, it's great to see that DICK'S Sporting Goods can compound returns by consistently reinvesting capital at increasing rates of return, because these are some of the key ingredients of those highly sought after multi-baggers. And with the stock having performed exceptionally well over the last five years, these patterns are being accounted for by investors. With that being said, we still think the promising fundamentals mean the company deserves some further due diligence.

Since virtually every company faces some risks, it's worth knowing what they are, and we've spotted 4 warning signs for DICK'S Sporting Goods (of which 1 is significant!) that you should know about.

DICK'S Sporting Goods is not the only stock earning high returns. If you'd like to see more, check out our free list of companies earning high returns on equity with solid fundamentals.

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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.