Finding a business that has the potential to grow substantially is not easy, but it is possible if we look at a few key financial metrics. 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. That's why when we briefly looked at Globant's (NYSE:GLOB) ROCE trend, we were pretty happy with what we saw.
What Is Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)?
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. The formula for this calculation on Globant is:
Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) ÷ (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)
0.13 = US$210m ÷ (US$1.9b - US$371m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2022).
Therefore, Globant has an ROCE of 13%. In absolute terms, that's a pretty normal return, and it's somewhat close to the IT industry average of 12%.
See our latest analysis for Globant
In the above chart we have measured Globant's prior ROCE against its prior performance, but the future is arguably more important. If you'd like to see what analysts are forecasting going forward, you should check out our free report for Globant.
What Does the ROCE Trend For Globant Tell Us?
The trend of ROCE doesn't stand out much, but returns on a whole are decent. The company has employed 480% more capital in the last five years, and the returns on that capital have remained stable at 13%. Since 13% 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 Globant's ROCE
The main thing to remember is that Globant has proven its ability to continually reinvest at respectable rates of return. And the stock has done incredibly well with a 286% return over the last five years, so long term investors are no doubt ecstatic with that result. So while the positive underlying trends may be accounted for by investors, we still think this stock is worth looking into further.
If you're still interested in Globant it's worth checking out our FREE intrinsic value approximation to see if it's trading at an attractive price in other respects.
While Globant 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.
About NYSE:GLOB
Flawless balance sheet with reasonable growth potential.