North West (TSE:NWC) Is Investing Its Capital With Increasing Efficiency

Simply Wall St
·2 min read

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. 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. This shows us that it's a compounding machine, able to continually reinvest its earnings back into the business and generate higher returns. With that in mind, the ROCE of North West (TSE:NWC) looks great, so lets see what the trend can tell us.

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 North West:

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

0.27 = CA$238m ÷ (CA$1.2b - CA$293m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to April 2021).

Therefore, North West has an ROCE of 27%. In absolute terms that's a great return and it's even better than the Consumer Retailing industry average of 10%.

Check out our latest analysis for North West

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Above you can see how the current ROCE for North West compares to its prior returns on capital, but there's only so much you can tell from the past. If you'd like to see what analysts are forecasting going forward, you should check out our free report for North West.

The Trend Of ROCE

Investors would be pleased with what's happening at North West. Over the last five years, returns on capital employed have risen substantially to 27%. Basically the business is earning more per dollar of capital invested and in addition to that, 40% 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.

Our Take On North West's ROCE

All in all, it's terrific to see that North West 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 53% return over the last five years. Therefore, we think it would be worth your time to check if these trends are going to continue.

If you want to continue researching North West, you might be interested to know about the 3 warning signs that our analysis has discovered.

North West 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.

This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. 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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