DoubleVerify Holdings (NYSE:DV) Is Looking To Continue Growing Its Returns On Capital

What are the early trends we should look for to identify a stock that could multiply in value over the long term? 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. If you see this, it typically means it's a company with a great business model and plenty of profitable reinvestment opportunities. So when we looked at DoubleVerify Holdings (NYSE:DV) and its trend of ROCE, we really liked what we saw.

Return On Capital Employed (ROCE): What Is It?

For those who don't know, ROCE is a measure of a company's yearly pre-tax profit (its return), relative to the capital employed in the business. To calculate this metric for DoubleVerify Holdings, this is the formula:

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

0.072 = US$72m ÷ (US$1.1b - US$76m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2023).

So, DoubleVerify Holdings has an ROCE of 7.2%. In absolute terms, that's a low return and it also under-performs the Software industry average of 9.4%.

View our latest analysis for DoubleVerify Holdings

In the above chart we have measured DoubleVerify Holdings' 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 DoubleVerify Holdings' ROCE Trending?

While in absolute terms it isn't a high ROCE, it's promising to see that it has been moving in the right direction. The numbers show that in the last four years, the returns generated on capital employed have grown considerably to 7.2%. The company is effectively making more money per dollar of capital used, and it's worth noting that the amount of capital has increased too, by 148%. The increasing returns on a growing amount of capital is common amongst multi-baggers and that's why we're impressed.

In Conclusion...

All in all, it's terrific to see that DoubleVerify Holdings is reaping the rewards from prior investments and is growing its capital base. And investors seem to expect more of this going forward, since the stock has rewarded shareholders with a 84% return over the last year. Therefore, we think it would be worth your time to check if these trends are going to continue.

Before jumping to any conclusions though, we need to know what value we're getting for the current share price. That's where you can check out our FREE intrinsic value estimation that compares the share price and estimated value.

While DoubleVerify Holdings isn't earning the highest return, check out this free list of companies that are earning high returns on equity with solid balance sheets.

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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.