Shareholders Would Enjoy A Repeat Of Motorola Solutions' (NYSE:MSI) Recent Growth In Returns

If you're not sure where to start when looking for the next multi-bagger, there are a few key trends you should keep an eye out for. 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. And in light of that, the trends we're seeing at Motorola Solutions' (NYSE:MSI) look very promising so lets take a look.

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 Motorola Solutions:

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

0.22 = US$1.8b ÷ (US$11b - US$3.2b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to July 2021).

Thus, Motorola Solutions has an ROCE of 22%. In absolute terms that's a great return and it's even better than the Communications industry average of 7.0%.

View our latest analysis for Motorola Solutions

In the above chart we have measured Motorola Solutions' 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 Motorola Solutions.

What Can We Tell From Motorola Solutions' ROCE Trend?

We like the trends that we're seeing from Motorola Solutions. The data shows that returns on capital have increased substantially over the last five years to 22%. The amount of capital employed has increased too, by 24%. 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 Motorola Solutions' ROCE

In summary, it's great to see that Motorola Solutions 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. So given the stock has proven it has promising trends, it's worth researching the company further to see if these trends are likely to persist.

Like most companies, Motorola Solutions does come with some risks, and we've found 2 warning signs that you should be aware of.

If you'd like to see other companies earning high returns, check out our free list of companies earning high returns with solid balance sheets here.

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What are the risks and opportunities for Motorola Solutions?

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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