Yahoo Finance We Like These Underlying Return On Capital Trends At Leon's Furniture (TSE:LNF)
If we want to find a stock that could multiply over the long term, what are the underlying trends we should look for? Firstly, we'd want to identify a growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and then alongside that, an ever-increasing base 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. So on that note, Leon's Furniture (TSE:LNF) looks quite promising in regards to its trends of return on capital.
What is Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)?
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. To calculate this metric for Leon's Furniture, this is the formula:
Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) ÷ (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)
0.18 = CA$268m ÷ (CA$2.3b - CA$831m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2022).
Thus, Leon's Furniture has an ROCE of 18%. That's a pretty standard return and it's in line with the industry average of 18%.
Check out our latest analysis for Leon's Furniture
Above you can see how the current ROCE for Leon's Furniture compares to its prior returns on capital, but there's only so much you can tell from the past. If you're interested, you can view the analysts predictions in our free report on analyst forecasts for the company.
The Trend Of ROCE
The trends we've noticed at Leon's Furniture are quite reassuring. Over the last five years, returns on capital employed have risen substantially to 18%. The amount of capital employed has increased too, by 25%. So we're very much inspired by what we're seeing at Leon's Furniture thanks to its ability to profitably reinvest capital.
On a side note, we noticed that the improvement in ROCE appears to be partly fueled by an increase in current liabilities. Essentially the business now has suppliers or short-term creditors funding about 36% of its operations, which isn't ideal. Keep an eye out for future increases because when the ratio of current liabilities to total assets gets particularly high, this can introduce some new risks for the business.
In Conclusion...
In summary, it's great to see that Leon's Furniture 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. Since the stock has only returned 14% to shareholders over the last five years, the promising fundamentals may not be recognized yet by investors. Given that, we'd look further into this stock in case it has more traits that could make it multiply in the long term.
If you'd like to know about the risks facing Leon's Furniture, we've discovered 2 warning signs that you should be aware of.
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.
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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.
