Yahoo Finance Is There More Growth In Store For Cosan's (NYSE:CZZ) Returns On Capital?
There are a few key trends to look for if we want to identify the next multi-bagger. Ideally, a business will show two trends; firstly a growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and secondly, an increasing 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. Speaking of which, we noticed some great changes in Cosan's (NYSE:CZZ) returns on capital, so let's have a look.
What is Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)?
For those that aren't sure what ROCE is, it measures the amount of pre-tax profits a company can generate from the capital employed in its business. Analysts use this formula to calculate it for Cosan:
Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) ÷ (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)
0.067 = R$4.2b ÷ (R$69b - R$7.7b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2020).
Thus, Cosan has an ROCE of 6.7%. In absolute terms, that's a low return but it's around the Oil and Gas industry average of 7.7%.
Check out our latest analysis for Cosan
In the above chart we have a measured Cosan'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.
How Are Returns Trending?
We're glad to see that ROCE is heading in the right direction, even if it is still low at the moment. Over the last five years, returns on capital employed have risen substantially to 6.7%. The company is effectively making more money per dollar of capital used, and it's worth noting that the amount of capital has increased too, by 116%. So we're very much inspired by what we're seeing at Cosan thanks to its ability to profitably reinvest capital.
The Key Takeaway
In summary, it's great to see that Cosan 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 trends 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.
If you'd like to know more about Cosan, we've spotted 2 warning signs, and 1 of them is significant.
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.
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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