What Do The Returns At United States Cellular (NYSE:USM) Mean Going Forward?

If we want to find a potential multi-bagger, often there are underlying trends that can provide clues. 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. Put simply, these types of businesses are compounding machines, meaning they are continually reinvesting their earnings at ever-higher rates of return. So on that note, United States Cellular (NYSE:USM) looks quite promising in regards to its trends of return on capital.

What is Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)?

If you haven't worked with ROCE before, it measures the 'return' (pre-tax profit) a company generates from capital employed in its business. The formula for this calculation on United States Cellular is:

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

0.022 = US$185m ÷ (US$9.2b - US$730m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2020).

Thus, United States Cellular has an ROCE of 2.2%. In absolute terms, that's a low return and it also under-performs the Wireless Telecom industry average of 3.1%.

View our latest analysis for United States Cellular

In the above chart we have measured United States Cellular's 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.

What Does the ROCE Trend For United States Cellular Tell Us?

Even though ROCE is still low in absolute terms, it's good to see it's heading in the right direction. The numbers show that in the last five years, the returns generated on capital employed have grown considerably to 2.2%. Basically the business is earning more per dollar of capital invested and in addition to that, 39% 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.

What We Can Learn From United States Cellular's ROCE

In summary, it's great to see that United States Cellular 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 since the stock has fallen 25% over the last five years, there might be an opportunity here. With that in mind, we believe the promising trends warrant this stock for further investigation.

One more thing: We've identified 3 warning signs with United States Cellular (at least 2 which are a bit concerning) , and understanding them would certainly be useful.

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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