Yahoo Finance Will Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE:CMG) Multiply In Value Going Forward?
If we want to find a potential multi-bagger, often there are underlying trends that can provide clues. 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. In light of that, when we looked at Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE:CMG) and its ROCE trend, we weren't exactly thrilled.
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 Chipotle Mexican Grill:
Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) ÷ (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)
0.065 = US$312m ÷ (US$5.6b - US$802m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2020).
So, Chipotle Mexican Grill has an ROCE of 6.5%. On its own that's a low return, but compared to the average of 5.4% generated by the Hospitality industry, it's much better.
View our latest analysis for Chipotle Mexican Grill
In the above chart we have measured Chipotle Mexican Grill'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 The Trend Of ROCE Can Tell Us
In terms of Chipotle Mexican Grill's historical ROCE movements, the trend isn't fantastic. To be more specific, ROCE has fallen from 32% over the last five years. On the other hand, the company has been employing more capital without a corresponding improvement in sales in the last year, which could suggest these investments are longer term plays. It's worth keeping an eye on the company's earnings from here on to see if these investments do end up contributing to the bottom line.
Our Take On Chipotle Mexican Grill's ROCE
In summary, Chipotle Mexican Grill is reinvesting funds back into the business for growth but unfortunately it looks like sales haven't increased much just yet. Yet to long term shareholders the stock has gifted them an incredible 103% return in the last five years, so the market appears to be rosy about its future. Ultimately, if the underlying trends persist, we wouldn't hold our breath on it being a multi-bagger going forward.
Chipotle Mexican Grill could be trading at an attractive price in other respects, so you might find our free intrinsic value estimation on our platform quite valuable.
For those who like to invest in solid companies, check out this free list of companies with solid balance sheets and high returns on equity.
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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